tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81785495464690309602024-03-05T04:05:07.599-08:00RecaptainsSaving Series One Book at a TimeSanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09297915931078500505noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-71068282871550679382015-09-15T00:00:00.000-07:002015-09-15T00:00:07.081-07:00A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> A Wicked Thing<br />
<b>Author: </b>Rhiannon Thomas<br />
<b>Series: </b>A Wicked Thing #1<br />
- <i>A Wicked Thing</i> (February 2015)<br />
- Untitled (2016)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19549841-seraphina" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One hundred years after falling asleep, Princess Aurora wakes up to the kiss of a handsome prince and a broken kingdom that has been dreaming of her return. All the books say that she should be living happily ever after. But as Aurora understands all too well, the truth is nothing like the fairy tale.<br />
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Her family is long dead. Her "true love" is a kind stranger. And her whole life has been planned out by political foes while she slept.<br />
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As Aurora struggles to make sense of her new world, she begins to fear that the curse has left its mark on her, a fiery and dangerous thing that might be as wicked as the witch who once ensnared her. With her wedding day drawing near, Aurora must make the ultimate decision on how to save her kingdom: marry the prince or run.</blockquote>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
Aurora wakes up from a kiss after a century and is to marry Prince Rodric so that the land of Alyssinia can prosper again. Unwilling to do so, Aurora tries to accept her fate. Tristan, a bartender Aurora met in the city, is working against the kingdom by trying to kill the king. He asks Aurora to be his ally. She refuses. Prince Finnegan of Vanhelm also asks her to side with him and she refuses him, as well. On the day of her engagement, she tries to blow up the prince in her fury. Aurora has magic. Celestine is alive and well and tells Aurora that since Aurora has magic, they should work together. Celestine would teach her how to control her magic in exchange for having some of it for herself. Aurora doesn't want anything to do with her. When Isabelle, Prince Rodrics's younger sister, dies eating the poisoned food meant for Aurora, she realizes that it was the king's dirty work. On the day of the wedding, Celestine catches in her attempt to flee and Aurora lets Celestine take some of her magic. Aurora then flees the city through the forest.<br />
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<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>A hundred and two years after she fell asleep, Aurora wakes up with a kiss from Prince Rodric.</li>
<li>Naturally, she freaks out.</li>
<li>They both go downstairs to meet the people of Alyssinia who cheer and celebrate especially King John the Third and Queen Iris of Falreach.</li>
<li>Aurora is very shaken because she feels like she fell asleep yesterday but a century has passed, her parents are dead and bad luck has befallen on Alyssinia ever since.</li>
<li>Queen Iris is quick to warn her to comply with them for her own protection.</li>
<li>Aurora has dinner with Prince Rodric who seems awkward but kind and keep talking about how their true love will prosper Alyssinia.</li>
<li>The wedding is set to take place in three weeks which makes Aurora feel more trapped than ever.</li>
<li>That night, Aurora unlocks her door, goes out of the palace from the escape route in her tower and goes into a bar enchanted by the music playing inside.</li>
<li>There she meets Tristan, a bartender, and feels a connection to him.</li>
<li>Prince Finnegan of Vanhelm arrives to meet Aurora and in a private meeting, asks her to consider going away to Vanhelm with him.</li>
<li>Aurora declines.</li>
<li>On the fourth night with Tristan, he tells her that he knows who she is and wants Aurora to help him kill the king as he's part of a rebellion.</li>
<li>Aurora declines.</li>
<li>Her maid, Betsy, eventually informs the queen after warning Aurora a couple of times since Aurora is unable to lock her door after slipping back in.</li>
<li>The queen warns Aurora to not resist and tightens her security.</li>
<li>Meanwhile, Aurora's meetings with Prince Rodric are mostly dull and awkward with him taking her to the queen's gardens and to meet Isabelle, his younger sister.</li>
<li>On the day of the engagement banquet, Tristan and his allies put small explosions to disrupt the ceremony. Aurora is wounded after she stops a guard from harming a girl.</li>
<li>Rodric tries to stop her, but Aurora's hate for him sets off an explosion around him. He jumps back in time and isn't harmed.</li>
<li>That night Celestine beckons Aurora and tells her that she'd teach Aurora how to control her magic in exchange for getting some of it for herself.</li>
<li>Aurora declines.</li>
<li>Aurora tries to light a candle on her own and what makes the candle burn is her anger fueling her magic. She scorches her hands.</li>
<li>Prince Finnegan takes her to the dungeons at night to show her how the kings kills everyone who dare rebel against him. There she sees Tristan getting away after freeing his allies.</li>
<li>The next day, Prince Finnegan tricks her into admitting she has magic.</li>
<li>During the banquet, two days before the wedding, Aurora unknowingly feeds Isabelle the poisoned dessert meant for her and Isabelle dies.</li>
<li>Tristan sends her a note to come meet him and declines his involvement in poisoning her food. Aurora ignores it.</li>
<li>The next day, the king summons her and tells her she's under suspicion for being involved in the plot that killed Isabelle and has her watched even more closely.</li>
<li>Locked up in the tower, Aurora realizes that it was the king who wants her dead.</li>
<li>A day before she is to be married, Aurora calls Prince Finnegan to her chambers and asks her to distract the guards as she flees the altar because she wants to show the king that she can. He agrees.</li>
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<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
In the square the next day, Aurora makes a speech about how the wedding won't change anything and that she's leaving until she knows what the right thing to do is. The king holds a dagger to Aurora's throat but Rodric kicks the king to stop him. Not missing her chance to get away, Aurora runs and anyone who tries to stop her is knocked back from the magic. Celestine arrives and asks her to give some of the magic to her in return for information about how she knew her mother. Aurora agrees and Celestine tells her that her mother came to her asking to help her have a child and then betrayed her. After taking some of her magic, Celestine asks Aurora to work with her but Aurora isn't willing. Aurora flees the city via an old drainage tunnel located in the western edge of the city and arrives in the forest, her instincts telling her that something awaits her beyond the trees.</div>
Sanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09297915931078500505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-14805074194307659002015-09-08T10:19:00.000-07:002015-09-08T10:19:00.157-07:00A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title:</b> A Darker Shade of Magic</div>
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<b>Author: </b>V. E. Schwab</div>
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<b>Series: </b>A Darker Shade of Magic #1</div>
<div>
- A Darker Shade of Magic (February 2015)</div>
<div>
- ADSOM2 (2016)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23403402-a-darker-shade-of-magic">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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Kell is one of the last Travelers—rare magicians who choose a parallel universe to visit.</div>
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Grey London is dirty, boring, lacks magic, ruled by mad King George. Red London is where life and magic are revered, and the Maresh Dynasty presides over a flourishing empire. White London is ruled by whoever has murdered their way to the throne. People fight to control magic, and the magic fights back, draining the city to its very bones. Once there was Black London - but no one speaks of that now.</div>
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Officially, Kell is the Red Traveler, personal ambassador and adopted Prince of Red London, carrying the monthly correspondences between royals of each London. Unofficially, Kell smuggles for those willing to pay for even a glimpse of a world they’ll never see. This dangerous hobby sets him up for accidental treason. Fleeing into Grey London, Kell runs afoul of Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She robs him, saves him from a dangerous enemy, then forces him to another world for her 'proper adventure'.</div>
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But perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, Kell and Lila will first need to stay alive — trickier than they hoped.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
in short</h2>
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So there are four Londons, one of which is closed off because magic took over and ruined the place. Kell can travel between worlds and he is a messenger for the royal Red London family. And also part of their family although he doesn't always think so. He gets tricked into taking half of a Black London Magical Stone to Red London and is attacked, but he escapes into Grey London where he meets Lila. Kell and Lila fight with Holland a bit before going to Red London together. Kell is caught and taken to Rhy, who is possessed by Astrid. Astrid makes Rhy stab himself and Rhy almost dies but IT'S OKAY BECAUSE KELL BINDS HIS SOUL TO RHY'S. *whispers* OTP. Kell and Lila go to White London and take out the Dane twins, and take back the other half of the BLMS. In the end, Kell still needs to go to Black London and Lila gets a pirate ship.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h2>
what went down</h2>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell returns to Red London from his visit with Grey London's king and prince regent.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell works as a messenger between the three Londons (since Black London is off limits) and he delivers official letters from RL's king and queen. He also illegally smuggles harmless items between the worlds - something that is considered treason so shhhh, don't tell anyone.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He returns to RL's palace and it is revealed that Kell was pretty much adopted by the king and queen and grew up with them as a part of their family. But he still considers himself property. He also reveals that the first five years of his memories were removed by magic so he doesn't know his birth name or where he came from.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Prince Rhy is visited by Holland and given a necklace, although the guard isn't entirely sure what Rhy and Holland were talking about. Holland removes the poor guard's memory of the incident.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell is sent to White London to see the Dane twins, who rule together and are hella creepy. Athos is busy torturing some boy when Kell arrives. Astrid and Athos drink Holland's blood, and Holland can't resist because he is bound to them and you can't break a soul bond like that.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Lila (from Grey London) sets a boat on fire because the owner (her landlord) tries to force himself on her. She goes back to the tavern that she was at a year ago, which is owned by a man called Barron.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell gets a bit drunk with the Dane twins and staggers back to the tavern in White London. A woman hands him a letter and a package just as he's about to go back to RL. She asks him to deliver them to someone in Red London so Kell is like, eh, what's the harm in that. Despite having promised Rhy that he would stop smuggling.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell arrives at the address that the woman sent him to and is attacked by two cutthroats - killers for hire - who want the stone that was in the package. He kills one and disables the other. Kell then escapes to Grey London.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In GL, Kell is robbed by Lila. He follows her back to the tavern and demands the stone back. Lila summons another Kell using the stone's magic, and it's all cool until other!Kell attacks her for trying to send him away. Kell manages to get rid of him and traps Lila to the wall before he leaves with the stone.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Holland finds Lila near the tavern and tortures her in an attempt to get Kell to come to her. There's a fight, and eventually Kell and Lila get away. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell and Lila take supplies from the tavern because Lila has convinced Kell to take her with him on a parallel universe roadtrip. Kell needs to get the stone back to Black London, where it came from, and Lila wants adventure. The pair get split up in Red London, their first stop, but eventually Kell finds Lila. They travel to the Red London version of the tavern only to find that it has been burned down. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Holland kills Barron because he didn't know where Kell and Lila went. He then travels to RL, shows up at the tavern, and tries to torment Kell and Lila to come out of hiding. Kell uses the stone to cloak himself and Lila. This makes them corporeal so Holland thinks they're not there. Lila finds out that Barron is dead and gets very upset.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Lila and Kell use the stone to cloak them while they go to Fletcher's shop to get a chess piece which will act as a talisman to get them to White London. Turns out that using the stone too much is affecting Kell and so Lila takes it. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Fletcher turns Kell into the royal guard, who show up shortly after Fletcher alerts them. Lila cloaks herself but Kell is taken away and then knocked out. One of the guards stays behind and slits Fletcher's throat. Lila grabs the chess piece and then goes off to save Kell.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell is taken to see Prince Rhy, except it's not really Rhy - it's Astrid Dane from WL possessing his body using the necklace that Holland gave to him. Lila shows up and helps Kell out, and Astrid makes Rhy STAB HIMSELF NOOOO before coming out of his body and fleeing.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A drunk guy called Booth has been possessed and is going around spreading the Black London Magic Virus in RL. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kell takes Rhy and Lila to a sanctuary where he was taught. He has a room there, which is handy. Here, Kell binds Rhy's life to his IN A FANTASTIC SHOW OF TRUE LOVE, meaning so long as Kell lives, Rhy will too. Kell and Lila leave Rhy behind with the owner of the sanctuary, but not before the guy comments on Lila's glass eye. (Amber: I THINK THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR DEMON EYE REASONS, Y/Y?)</li>
</ul>
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<h2>
how did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kell and Lila get to White London and go to the Dane's fortress. They split up. Kell is confronted by Athos and the two fight. Lila kills the tortured boy who is supposed to be guarding the door but he just wants to die in order to be released from his bonds. Lila finds Astrid in the throne room and attempts to kill her but is unable to. Astrid wakes up and fights with Lila. Lila gets knocked down and Astrid goes to help her brother out with the Kell situation. It's a bit late though, because Kell has already killed Athos. Astrid pretends to be Lila but Kell sees right through her disguise and kills her in a moment that is very THIS IS FOR MY FAMILY /Anastasia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kell and Lila return to Red London and to Rhy. They still haven't taken the stone back but at least they have both halves of it now. Rhy and Kell flirt a little bit and I'm pretty sure they confess their love off-screen. Lila gets a ship because she's a real pirate now.</div>
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<h2>
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Antari: A world-hopper who can travel between the four parallel worlds. There are only two of them in existence - Kell and Holland. They each have one black demon eye of awesomeness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Black London: A place of great magic, closest to the source (of all evil *cough*). It's been closed off because people and magic went crazy and that's why inter-London travel is no longer permitted. Except for Kell and Holland, obviously.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
White London: The closest London to Black London. People here are hella creepy and they steal magic from people by drinking their blood and such. Ruled by the Dane twins until the end of the book.</div>
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Red London: Kell's home!London. Magic exists here and people live pretty good lives. </div>
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Grey London: Magic is incredibly rare here but I'm pretty sure Lila got some.</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-21030276545006095672015-03-15T08:52:00.002-07:002015-03-15T08:52:25.556-07:00Happy Two Years!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Two years ago today we first went live with the Recaptains. At this point, we had been planning and plotting for weeks, writing our first recaps and working on the design and figuring out how, exactly, we wanted to do this thing. Because if we were to do this, to really do this, we wanted to do it right. And I think the fact that we've been around for two whole years kind of shows that we did at least something right.</div>
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<br />
Recaptains started out on Twitter with a conversation between <a href="http://bookrockbetty.com/">Betty</a>, <a href="http://www.soobsessedwith.com/">Hannah</a>, <a href="http://www.paperiot%2Ccom/">Judith</a>, and <a href="http://www.booksofamber.com/">Amber</a>, and in two years it has quickly expanded to become an incredible force (in our opinion). We have Betty and Judith to thank for the original idea, Amber to thank for being awesome and coming up with the name, and Hannah for encouraging the craziness and offering to help out.<br />
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Shortly afterwards, we gained some new teammates! The ever-so-awesome <a href="http://artsymusingsofabibliophile.blogspot.co.uk/">Sana</a> and <a href="http://me24x7.blogspot.co.uk/">Fahima</a> joined the team, along with <a href="http://blogoferised.blogspot.com/">Ula</a> and Sarah who are no longer recapping with us. These ladies, along with all of our amazing followers, visitors, and contributors, have been absolutely wonderful these past few years and have been absolute life-savers.<br />
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Thank you to everyone who has supported our little website in the past two years, especially those who have been with us since the beginning. We're thrilled to have hit the two year mark, and we hope to continue fighting evil for many years to come!<br />
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- Amber, Fahima, Judith, and Sana xo<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
Join the Crime-fighting Team</h2>
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As you can imagine, saving the world is a lot of work, especially since we're all in work, school or university. As of today, the four of us will be on the look out for some new superhero friends to join the team! Submissions will stay open as long as necessary, until we find the right people to become official superheroes with us. </div>
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If you think you have what it takes, just fill in the form below!</div>
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Judithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10169574717441851611noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-22198961740156073672015-03-12T13:17:00.000-07:002015-03-12T13:17:34.757-07:00The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsrffpUgJMDAqZyXCfsfsNAksRYSyAVpra11pxlD1rbTI9x3CQ200s2rJkmeHLzR7P6HJ1DConh2UHdhXwrnCSORxxX_Q7YwZoFRQNWPoRZQnKeBgwcDVauYxc3D3W8Ldrl58nbK3KP0/s1600/the+way+of+kings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGsrffpUgJMDAqZyXCfsfsNAksRYSyAVpra11pxlD1rbTI9x3CQ200s2rJkmeHLzR7P6HJ1DConh2UHdhXwrnCSORxxX_Q7YwZoFRQNWPoRZQnKeBgwcDVauYxc3D3W8Ldrl58nbK3KP0/s1600/the+way+of+kings.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>The Way of Kings</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>Brandon Sanderson</div>
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<b>Series: </b>The Stormlight Archive #1</div>
<div>
- <i>The Way of Kings </i>(2010)</div>
<div>
- Words of Radiance (2014)</div>
<div>
- Skybreaker</div>
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+ 7 more</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10063939-the-way-of-kings">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soiless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.</div>
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It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.</div>
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One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.</div>
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Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
in short</h2>
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Kaladin was captured and trained to be part of Bridge 4 for Sadeas' army. He eventually starts to lead the group because they all end up loving him. He gets left outside during a highstorm, which is when people start to realise he has some weird powers going on with him because no one should be able to survive that. Meanwhile, Dalinar, the king's uncle, has been experiencing weird visions. People think he's a bit crazy, but he pulls through and then after a betrayal from Sadeas, Kaladin saves his life. SHIP. Shallan has worked as a ward for a powerful woman, and steals her Soulcaster. However it tuns out that she doesn't need a Soulcaster to Soulcast. Jasnah and Shallan team up and it's revealed that Jasnah thinks there Parshmen are Voidbringers.</div>
<h2>
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The prelude is about the Heralds (leaders of the Knights Radiant), who have been fighting Voidbringers for thousands of years. Usually the Heralds are to die in battle, before being reborn and starting the cycle again. The Heralds decide they've had enough of this, and they abandon one of their own so the rest of them can gtfo. The Shardblades and Shardplates come from these guys.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Skip forward a few thousand years, and we meet our main characters: Kaladin (swoon), Dalinar (SWOON), Shallan, and also Szeth and Hoid.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Szeth is basically an assassin and is sent to murder the king of Alethkar. He is very reluctant to do this but he is forced to. It's revealed that he has a Shardblade later on, and also has an ability called Surgebinding.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Parshendi take credit for this murder, which brings about the War of Reckoning between the Alethi and the Parshendi.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">We meet Dalinar, who is the brother of the murdered king. We find out that the king left a message before he died, telling Dalinar to use an ancient book called The Way of Kings.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kaladin, my precious, was trained as a surgeon before joining an army. He is caught and enslaved, and sent to work as a bridgeman for Bridge 4, part of Sadeas' army in the War of Reckoning.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kaladin starts talking to a spren called Syl, who is adorable and I would totally ship it except... yeah. She's lovely to him and she loves him because he's honourable and kind.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dalinar starts to get visions in which he sees the Knights Radiant. Throughout the book, they start to reveal things about the Voidbringers, amongst over things.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Shallan has been sent to work for Jasnah (Dalinar's niece) in order to secure a Soulcaster so she can switch her own broken one with it. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kaladin takes control of Bridge 4 (because they love him) and he makes them use their bridge as a shield in battle. He gets beaten, and is left outside overnight during a Highstorm, which should really have killed him but for some reason he survived. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kaladin seems to have the power to drain Stormlight from spheres.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dalinar's nephew, the new Alethi king, starts to become paranoid that someone wants to take his life. Dalinar tries to deal with him but struggles.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dalinar doesn't really want to fight thanks to the visions, and his son, Adolin, thinks he's a bit weird for suddenly changing his mind because, hello, they are at war.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Shallan ends up using the Soulcaster, turning a goblet into blood. Gross. People think she has tried to kill herself.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It's revealed that Kaladin joined the army when he was younger, along with his brother in a true Katniss/Prim moment. Unfortunately, he's unable to protect his brother, or anyone else in his crew, and this really gets to him. Understandable.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dalinar hears the voice again telling him to "unite them". He sees an old guy who tells him stuff about the Knights Radiant standing again, and the man claims to be God.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sadeas betrays Dalinar when they're out fighting the Parshendi, and basically leaves him and his crew to die. Kaladin realises what's going on and goes to save Dalinar, and a ship is born. Shallan discovers that Jasnah's Soulcaster is fake, meaning Jasnah and Shallan can both Soulcast without a Soulcaster. Jasnah reveals her research about the Knights Radiant and the Voidbringers, and the pair get ready to travel to the Shattered Plains to meet with Dalinar.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Stormlight: Energy given off by high storms. Can be stored in gem stones and apparently used by Kaladin.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Voidbringers: Unknown, creepy beings.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Shardbearers: People who possess Shardblades.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Honorblades: An epic form of Shardblade.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Shardblades: A magically-enhanced blade. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Shardplates: A magically-enhanced plate of armour. Recharged by Stormlight.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Surgebinding: The ability to control gravity.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Soulcaster: An object that allows people to transform things into other things.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-84109488528490466602015-03-07T08:09:00.000-08:002015-03-07T13:38:29.780-08:00The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtESRJadbfgZGnA-znBDFnzSxFnfQ3gQwqEgSohjqwVZ1zBc5LGek77aSg_uabwVOHG_JSLXN0V5Ul7h6yJW2xOUoYwWQJB854F1A2d7vXKO0CFQ5HtvoW92c7wCfn4lunUvxgqdnrx4Q/s1600/locke+lamora.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtESRJadbfgZGnA-znBDFnzSxFnfQ3gQwqEgSohjqwVZ1zBc5LGek77aSg_uabwVOHG_JSLXN0V5Ul7h6yJW2xOUoYwWQJB854F1A2d7vXKO0CFQ5HtvoW92c7wCfn4lunUvxgqdnrx4Q/s1600/locke+lamora.jpg" height="320" width="208" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>The Lies of Locke Lamora</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>Scott Lynch</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>Gentleman Bastard #1</div>
<div>
- The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006)</div>
<div>
- Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007)</div>
<div>
- The Republic of Thieves (2013)</div>
<div>
- The Thorn of Emberlain (2015)</div>
<div>
- The Ministry of Necessity</div>
<div>
- The Mage and the Master Spy</div>
<div>
- Inherit the Night</div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a friend to the poor, a ghost that walks through walls.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Slightly built and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves. The Gentleman Bastards.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The capricious, colourful underworld of the ancient city of Camorr is the only home they have ever known. But now a clandestine war is threatening to tear it apart. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends are suddenly struggling just to stay alive...</div>
</blockquote>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<a name='more'></a></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a very difficult book to recap in short, but here we go: Locke and his crew are trying to con a nobleman and his wife, but it goes horribly wrong when a mysterious guy called the Gray King gets involved. The Gray King tricks Locke into tricking Barsavi, who almost kills Locke but is then killed by the Gray King, who is really called Raza. Raza takes over the city with the help of his sisters and a warlock guy called The Falconer. They use Dona Vorchenza and try to blow up the city that had wronged them so many years ago, but Locke stops them. Jean kills the sisters, Locke kills Raza, and they permanently disable The Falconer. They then sail away together on a ship of dreams.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dead: Bug (the crew's assistant), the Sanza twins, Capa Raza, Capa Barsavi, the gladiator sisters, Chains, the rest of the Barsavi family.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Alive: LOCKE AND JEAN 4EVA, Dona Vorchenza.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ongoing mysteries: Who the fuck is Sabetha </div>
<h2>
what went down</h2>
<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The book is told in both flashbacks and present day stuff. It starts with Locke as a child joining a band of petty thieves, and eventually he is recruited by an awesome thief person called Chains who pretends to be a blind priest in order for people to give him money. He joins Chains' group which consists of Jean (Locke's true love, imo), Sabetha (who doesn't actually appear in the book), and the twins Calo and Galdo.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Chains dies off-"screen" and Locke now runs the gang in present day. They have a sweet little apprentice called Bug and Sabetha is still nowhere to be seen. Their group is called the Gentleman Bastards.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Gentleman Bastards are pretty freakin' rich because they con everyone. At the start of the book they're about to start a con on Don Salvara. Locke pretends to be someone called Lukas and makes up a story about booze to get Salvara to give him money. Locke then pretends to be a Midnighter and "warns" Salvara about Lukas being the Thorn of Camorr, but he tells Salvara that he should still give Lukas money. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, the Gray King has been killing Capa Barsavi's (head of the criminal underground who takes a cut from everyone) men.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Gray King runs into Locke. He has brought a Bondsmage called The Falconer with him and they scare Locke because the Bondsmage is freakin' creepy like his bird. So The Gray King wants Locke to pretend to be him at a meeting with Capa Barsavi for reasons that he doesn't feel like revealing right now. Locke agrees in return for The Gray King's silence about the con business.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Gray King murders Barsavi's daughter, Nazca, and returns the body to the Capa. This is upsetting because Locke had just gotten engaged to her and she was pretty awesome.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Locke goes through with the meeting but it goes horribly wrong when Barsavi somehow manages to get through Locke's supposed protection, knock him out and put him in a barrel. They then throw him in the canal, because they still think he's The Gray King, and Jean and co. have to come and rescue him. Clearly, The Gray King betrayed Locke and didn't even provide protection in the first place. RUDE.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jean, Bug, and Locke return to their base to find all of their wealth stolen and the Sanza twins dead, in the creepiest scene in all of history. Some guy turns up and kills Bug, and threatens Jean and Locke but they're like nah mate.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Locke goes to The Floating Grave where Barsavi is celebrating the "death" of the Gray King. Obviously, the Gray King is not dead and his minions actually sabotage the party. The awesome gladiator sisters from the beginning kill Barsavi and his sons. The Gray King shows up and is like "I'm gonna run this town tonight".</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Turns out that the Gray King is the brother of the gladiator sisters. What.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Some background on Capa Raza/The Gray King: he and his sisters had been planning revenge on Barsavi since they were younger because their parents were murdered thanks to the nobles of Camorr. Now he's back to kill them all.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jean figures out that the Gray King (or Capa Raza, if you will) has been loading his wealth that he stole onto a plague ship. The gladiator sisters find Jean and fight him, but he kills them both because he's made of awesome. He gets wounded though, which sucks.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dona Vorchenza, the Duke's Spider, is now accidentally in league with Capa Raza because The Falconer did some voodoo on her. She lures Locke into a trap but he escapes because he's a ninja.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Locke goes back to his and Jean's hideout, and discovers that The Falconer has done voodoo on Jean now since he knows his real name. The Falconer tries to make Jean kill Locke, and then tries to voodoo Locke himself but Locke is like "lawl, as if Locke is my true name" and he ends up torturing The Falconer for information on the Gray King. He doesn't kill the guy, but he does remove his tongue and fingers.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
how did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So the Gray King has given the city four statues filled with bombs. Locke warns Dona Vorchenza, who is a flawless queen btw, and together they disable the statues. He is then set free to go and kill Capa Raza. In return for his freedom, Locke shares where his stolen wealth is hidden (the wealth that the Gray King stole from him). Locke tells her that it's hidden on a barge, but he doesn't know which one exactly, so people have to go hunting. He also tells Vorchenza to destroy the plague ship because it's seriously gross that it's still there and ready to infect the city. LOCKE FINDS RAZA AND KILLS HIM IN AN EPIC OTP LOCKE/JEAN MOMENT OF AWESOME. Vorchenza realises that she's been tricked and that Locke is the most hilarious and also pretty awesome for using the plague ship filled with treasure as an offering to the goddess of death FOR HIS DEAD FRIENDS GOODBYE. Jean and Locke sail away together because they're a SHIP.</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-3829437963623517842015-03-06T14:12:00.002-08:002015-03-06T14:12:17.442-08:00I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNi1mGNs8Er0u3TeMN4S-ocOOiYqNuucyjsJcr-KiElhAOCCrU82Nk_PsPux_yeLUCYOV7aDBTFJndasgjhV4af351zJDyCthBTLdhenKwUVjovR0nVaVLD8cLy7Rmp80TPaGUAf633JI/s1600/id+tell+you.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNi1mGNs8Er0u3TeMN4S-ocOOiYqNuucyjsJcr-KiElhAOCCrU82Nk_PsPux_yeLUCYOV7aDBTFJndasgjhV4af351zJDyCthBTLdhenKwUVjovR0nVaVLD8cLy7Rmp80TPaGUAf633JI/s1600/id+tell+you.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title:</b> I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>Ally Carter</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>Gallagher Girls #1</div>
<div>
- <i>I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You</i> (2006)</div>
- Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy (2007)<br />- Don’t Judge a Girl By Her Cover (2009)<br />- Only the Good Spy Young (2010)<br />- Out of Sight, Out of Time (2012)<br />- United We Spy (2013)<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6937524-i-d-tell-you-i-love-you-but-then-i-d-have-to-kill-you">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school - that is, it would be if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but it's really a school for spies. Cammie Morgan is a second-generation Gallagher Girl, and by her sophomore year she's already fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (one of which involves a piece of uncooked spaghetti). But the one thing the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for is what to do when she falls for a boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl. Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through town without his ever being the wiser - but can she have a relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her? Cammie may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's beginning her most dangerous mission - falling in love.</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/afisch99/">Amanda</a> very kindly offered to save this series from evil. Thanks, Amanda! </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cammie Morgan is a legacy. Her father and mother were both spies. Now her father is dead and her mother is the headmistress of the elite Gallagher Academy where young female spies have trained for decades. Cammie has been at this school since seventh grade, but this semester proves to be different. First, there’s the new Covert Operations teacher, Joe Solomon. Basically the entire student body mutually agrees that he’s incredibly attractive. They definitely aren’t prepared for his method of teaching, however. His goal, despite seeming like it’s to kill the hopes and dreams of every teenage spy-in-training, is really to get each girl face-to-face with reality and train them to be ready for anything. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Second, there’s the totally unexpected new girl, Macey McHenry, cosmetic heiress and nearly-juvenile-delinquent senator’s daughter. She’s also a descendant of the Gallagher Academy’s founder, Gilly Gallagher, and that’s why she got accepted in the first place. But anyway, Cammie and her friends Bex and Liz have to share their room with this spoiled girl, and they’re none too keen about it. That is, until the first CoveOps field assignment ends in a Cammie-the-Chameleon spotting by...gasp! An ordinary boy! Macey is the only one in perhaps the entire school who’s had experience with normal, ordinary boys, and she strikes a deal with Cammie. She’ll help Cammie navigate this incredibly confusing relationship if Cam will help her get out of newbie classes. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Through a series of close calls and confusing conversations, Cammie develops a relationship with the ordinary boy, Josh Abrams. But as this continues, her real life and imaginary life begin to brush against each other until finally they meet with a smash and Cammie must decide between the two, once and for all. So she walks away from what she had with Josh and plants her feet firmly into the spy world--just in time for her CoveOps final, which involves simulated kidnapping. Unfortunately, the rejected Josh is still standing by, and follows her into the midst of the exam, culminating in an epic industrial-building-wall-smash-with-a-forklift.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It’s the beginning of the semester and Cam is waiting for her friends to return. Enter tiny, clumsy, super genius friend Liz (who has major sunburn, for the record).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Bex, the super-cool, super-short-tempered British friend, is MIA. Actually, she’s late. Gallagher Girls are not late.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie, Liz, and classmate Anna Fetterman observe an empty teacher seat at the welcome back banquet. What? It must be someone new...and whoever it is, they’re also late! Gracious!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Bex and the new teacher, the mysterious Joe Solomon, arrive at the same time. He’ll be teaching Covert Operations.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">When the first class of CoveOps rolls around, Joe Solomon basically calls Gallagher Girls stupid. (Ouch.) He shows them they know nothing about field work, then makes a reference to Cammie’s MIA/dead (for real) father. He lets the girls out of class way early and gives them their homework assignment in two words--“Notice things.”</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The school goes on Code Red lockdown (aka, it turns into its alter-ego the snooty boarding school). Bex and Cammie are assigned to give a tour--for an extremely persister senator’s family, including Macey McHenry, a punk rebel who’s gotten kicked out of prep schools across the country. They try their best to make the school sound terribly strict and generally awful.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie, Bex, and Liz are interrupted by two guys bringing a bed to their room. They hunt down Cammie’s mom who explains they’re accepting Macey. The girls are, understandably, confused. Eventually Ms. Morgan reveals that Macey is a descendant of Gilly Gallagher.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">When it’s time for Macey to get the real story, Mr. Solomon flings a letter dagger at Professor Patricia Buckingham--you know, just a little show-and-tell for the new student. (Don’t worry--War and Peace saves the day.) Macey freaks out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Oh, by the way, it turns out Macey speaks French. Not a good idea to assume you can talk about a gal behind her back in French.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The first field assignment for CoveOps: tail Professor Smith at a carnival in town and find out what he gets to drink. Cammie, Bex, and Liz are the ones to go out, and for a while things are fine, but after some distractions and an unfortunate incident with a dunk tank tidal wave, Cammie loses her crew. Professor Smith catches Bex and Liz and marches them back to school, tossing his Dr. Pepper bottle in a trash can along the way. Cam slips out of hiding to find it, whispering “Mission accomplished”--but a boy across the street is watching her. (Can you say “plot point”?)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie loses her cool talking to said boy and blurts out that she’s collecting bottles for her cat Suzie to play with and no, he won’t see her at school because she’s homeschooled for religious reasons. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mr. Solomon totally freaks Cammie and her classmates out by showing them scary slides and reminding them what happens in real life when agents get caught. back in the dorm room, Cammie chooses not to tell her friends about Josh (ordinary boy).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately for Cammie, driving lessons take her and her roommates into town, where Josh appears and Cam promptly ducks. (Like no one’s gonna notice that. Especially not your friends, who are training to be spies.) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Bex and Liz grill Cammie at home, and the whole story comes out. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Liz insists Josh has to go “in the reports,” but Cammie protests. So Bex ingeniously suggests they conduct routine surveillance themselves. After all, they’re always encouraged to do “special projects” for “independent study,” and no one ever said they couldn’t make a project out of studying a special boy independently.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Should we mention just how convenient this excuse will seem in the eyes of their superiors? No? Well, okay then. Moving on!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The girls head out to break into Josh’s house. Actually, there’s no “breaking” required, since the door isn’t locked. (Cammie observes that Josh lives in a “TV neighborhood.”) A disaster is narrowly averted when Josh comes home to grab a pie. Cammie distracts him until Bex and LIz get away, then makes an excuse and leaves just as a guy, one of Josh’s friends, comes up to him. She overhears Josh tell the guy that Cammie’s “just some girl.”</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A minor tire explosion caused by Liz after some truly horrendous driving by Bex lands the girls a bag of Josh’s family’s trash to study. Results: a pink note from “DeeDee” and church bulletins. Since Cammie said she was homeschooled for religious reasons...he must be looking for her!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Macey offers to help with boy problems and interpretations if Cam will help her get out of newbie classes. Cammie agrees.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie’s friends set her up to go into town and “accidentally” run into Josh. He wants to call her, which obviously won’t work, so Cammie says she’ll be there “tomorrow night.” After Josh tries to surprise Cammie by covering her eyes and she flips him to the ground, they talk a little and agree that waffles are much better than pancakes. (I totally agree, by the way.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie suggests messages-behind-a-stone as a means of contact, and Josh totally thinks she’s weird, but he agrees.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Josh invites Cammie to the movies and she ditches the Academy’s career fair to go. The movie thing doesn’t pan out, so Cammie and Josh go to a diner-type restaurant, where they run into DeeDee and Josh’s friend Dillon, who is rude. Cammie and Josh escape, go talk somewhere else, and.....duh-duh-DUH! Kiss, of course!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Uh-oh time. Cammie’s falling behind on homework, and her mom wants to do something with her. But Josh... So she goes out with him anyway since he had something special planned. He takes her to a barn dance, she meets his parents, and then... GASP! Cammie sees her mom and Mr. Solomon dancing! Cue freak out! Luckily her buddies save the day and cammie’s able to sneak out without getting noticed. DeeDee walks by and offers to get Josh, who awards Cammie a birthday present. Of course...it isn’t really her birthday...it’s just the day she blurted out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cammie gets back to the school and sees her mother crying. Then she realizes why her subconscious picked this day to call her birthday: It’s her father’s birthday. She feels pretty terrible right now.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A bit later, the Gallagher Girls go to town. Cammie stops by the pharmacy Josh’s dad owns, hoping for some time with Josh, but he isn’t there yet. Dillon and crew follow Anna in and harass her, and Cammie hides. Meanwhile, Bex and Macey come to the girl’s defense. Liz is upset with Cammie, and Macey tells her she has no idea what Cammie is willing to do for her friends. Liz backs off.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emails between Dillon and Josh alert the girls that the “mission has been compromised,” as Dillon saw Cammie walking back with the Gallagher Girls. Cammie’s real life and her imaginary one have come head to head, and now she has a choice to make. She slips out to go tell Josh the truth, deciding to stick with the spy life for good.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cammie finds Josh and Dillon on their way to “get proof” and admits she attends the Gallagher Academy. Josh is upset, but the two part with Cammie reminding Josh of their discussion on free will and wishing him good luck in making his own choices.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then Cammie turns the corner and is kidnapped.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Don’t worry--it’s her teachers! CoveOps final, and it’s a practical exam. The girls are supposed to retrieve a disk and free Cammie. Cammie frees herself and finds the others...just in time for Josh to come bursting in to rescue her. (Or...cause problems. Ya know.) Cammie tells him to go away, and she and her teammates set off to grab the disk. They nearly fail, but just as Solomon is dismissing them, tiny Anna Fetterman slips between the bars guarding the disk and snags it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Oh, and then Josh crashes a forklift through the wall of the building. And everyone goes back to school for a little chat. Cammie’s mom says it was nice to “finally meet” Josh. Oh, yeah--she and Joe Solomon had it figured out. Solomon explains he’s been tough on Cammie and the others because he’s lost her dad already and he wants to prepare them, but especially her.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Josh is given “forget everything that happened today” tea (except he doesn’t know it’s special tea), and he says goodbye to Cammie and walks out. Cammie doesn’t know what things will look like next semester, but she knows who’ll be beside her, “And as every good spy knows--sometimes that’s enough.” The end!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
CoveOps - Covert Operations.<br /><br />Pavement artist - Someone who blends in with their surroundings extremely well and is an expert “tailer.”<br /><br />Field assignment - A “real life” assignment, with situations in the world.<br /><br />The Gallagher Glare - The expression on the face of the Roseville, Virginia citizens who dislike Gallagher Girls because they think they’re all spoiled heiresses.<br /><br />Operative - An agent/spy.<br /><br />Reconnaissance - Investigative snooping.<br /><br />Surveillance - Checking out an area or person, observing with an objective.Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-71633764291597969602015-03-06T14:01:00.002-08:002015-03-07T02:40:18.177-08:00Deception by C. J. Redwine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk60ts2-1vSrzRMLLcdu421YpAqQCEUI3ZM37gI7DaNhhYCJqkKF_YyzHfDfWcziqU6hl12OZmz1tm68AU7MjPa2q9ae64FBYWyOt5uIgH2sU-M2fdyPzCu_OUOh9P5OvNCwG-CTKHHJE/s1600/deception.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk60ts2-1vSrzRMLLcdu421YpAqQCEUI3ZM37gI7DaNhhYCJqkKF_YyzHfDfWcziqU6hl12OZmz1tm68AU7MjPa2q9ae64FBYWyOt5uIgH2sU-M2fdyPzCu_OUOh9P5OvNCwG-CTKHHJE/s1600/deception.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>Deception</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>C. J. Redwine</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>Courier's Daughter #2<br />
- <a href="http://recaptains.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/defiance-by-c-j-redwine.html">Defiance</a> (August 2012)<br />
- <i>Deception</i> (August 2013)<br />
- Deliverance (August 2014)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17331289-deception">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Baalboden has been ravaged. The brutal Commander's whereabouts are unknown. And Rachel, grief stricken over her father's death, needs Logan more than ever. With their ragged group of survivors struggling to forge a future, it's up to Logan to become the leader they need—with Rachel by his side. Under constant threat from rival Carrington's army, who is after the device that controls the Cursed One, the group decides to abandon the ruins of their home and take their chances in the Wasteland. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But soon their problems intensify tenfold: someone—possibly inside their ranks—is sabotaging the survivors, picking them off one by one. The chaos and uncertainty of each day puts unbearable strain on Rachel and Logan, and it isn't long before they feel their love splintering. Even worse, as it becomes clear that the Commander will stop at nothing to destroy them, the band of survivors begins to question whether the price of freedom may be too great—and whether, hunted by their enemies and the murderous traitor in their midst, they can make it out of the Wasteland alive.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.readingbystarlight.com/">Terri</a> has saved the day once again with this glorious recap! </div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2 style="text-align: left;">
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It’s been 3 days since the dissenting survivors left them and 157 people remain. Logan announces that they’re leaving Baalboden. People argue but Logan explains that an army is coming. Rowansmark will stop at nothing to get the Cursed One controller back and punish the thief; it’s part of their city-state’s guiding principles of honor and atonement. The Commander is also after the controller and he’ll be back.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan has built a machine to tunnel out of the city far enough away that the trackers won’t be able to find them when they resurface. (I remain skeptical about a 1000 yard tunnel being quite that effective but okay.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan wants to go to Lankenshire, a neighboring city-state unallied with the Commander or James Rowan. He hopes to negotiate for sanctuary in exchange for duplicating the stolen controller so Lankenshire can defend themselves against the Cursed One.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel, Willow and Quinn are training some of the survivors, including girls, how to fight, use weapons, and survive in the Wasteland. The men are still working through their “women are precious flowers, let’s not really fight them” mentality and so Rachel yells at them until they cooperate and spar properly.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A guy named Adam doesn’t like Logan, thinks he’s too young, his plans are bad, blah blah blah. Rachel gives a him verbal smackdown and Quinn has to stop her from hurting Adam. Rachel has been having nightmares and she’s hallucinating a little bit. Quinn tries to get her to talk about them but she’s stubborn.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Some of the girls are being catty toward Willow, who gives zero craps. The boys are all half in love with her, but because she’s Willow, she also gives zero craps about that.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Some prankster vandal keeps messing up the tunnel digger and leaving snarky notes for Logan about paying his debts, being judged, committing crimes, blah blah blah. Logan is more annoyed than worried.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A guy named Ian is a really good fighter with obvious training. He confides to Logan that his father was loyal to the Commander and was on the Brute Squad; Ian was apprenticed to take his place. Ian knows a lot about Rowansmark because his father died there at the hands of a Rowansmark tracker. The necklace he wears came from his father. He hates the Commander for letting his father be killed and doesn’t want Logan to tell Rachel or anyone about his past.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan and Rachel are hunting/taking a kissing break in the Wasteland when they see the army approaching. Logan had told Drake to blow the gate if the army started charging, but that means they’ll be trapped outside the Wall. Rachel and Logan run for it, but a group comes outside the Wall to fight off the army until they can get back to the gate. The group gets mostly back inside when the Commander shouts for Rachel.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander has an army of reinforcements and Dragonskin armor from Carrington. (Dragonskin can’t be pierced by metal.) Rachel fights to get to the Commander and kill him but Quinn gets her back inside the city. They blow the gate.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan realizes that Rachel purposefully stayed behind to try and kill the Commander. Rachel argues that it would have been worth her death. Logan begs her to wait until he has a plan that doesn’t involve them dying.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The army is outside with a battering ram trying to bust in. Logan gets everyone into the Commander’s former compound.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel is wracked with guilt every time she sees pregnant Eloise. She can’t stop seeing the deaths of Oliver and Melkin and everyone else. She tries to suppress her feelings by training and planning revenge.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan doesn’t understand why he’s the leader. Thom says that Logan was the only person brave enough to defy the Commander. Many other men saw their loved ones killed, but they only planned. Logan acted to save Rachel. They need Logan because he’s the only one brave enough to fight back.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The army breaks into the city and it’s time to escape into the tunnel. Once everyone is in, they’ll blow up the entrance so they can’t be followed. Rachel sees Jeremiah lagging behind. He was making the map to Lankenshire and has knowledge they need, so she goes to save him. She and Quinn fight them off, Willow gets Jeremiah, and they blow the entrance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn is injured from the fight because he refuses to carry weapons. Willow is angry at Rachel for putting herself in danger because Rachel should know that Quinn will put himself in harms way for her even if it gets him killed. The protective little sister role reversal pleases me.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan asks Quinn to keep an eye on Rachel because she’s not herself and she’ll stop at nothing to kill the Commander. Quinn wants to stop her from doing that because he knows what kind of effect it will have on her psychologically. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian accuses Logan of not trusting him with “the real plan." Logan tells him the plan hasn’t changed: they’re going to Lankenshire and Logan is going to duplicate the controller so the Lankenshire leaders have one too.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel has a nightmare and almost stabs Logan. She won’t tell him what’s wrong.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel tries to get Quinn to carry a weapon and he gets angry. His father forced him to become a weapon to protect their village and he doesn’t want to forget what he’s capable of.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The prankster is still leaving self-righteous notes.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They make a stop at a road sign and find a railroad track and a ferris wheel. Jeremiah explains trains and highways because he’s old and remembers them, and the apocalypse children are appropriately awed or skeptical according to their personalities. LOL.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan doesn’t have materials to duplicate the controller so he has to wait until Lankenshire to finish it. He’s also working on a device to kill the Commander using the unique marker in the Commander’s wrist mark. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Adam and Ian get into a fight because Adam badmouths Logan’s leadership and Ian defends him. They break it up but the Cursed One attacks.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan tries to use the controller to drive it away but it doesn’t seem to work at first, but then it does.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian convinces Rachel to make a pact with him to sneak off and kill the Commander if they get the chance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan can’t sleep so he checks the perimeter and finds all the sentries have had their throats cut. Another note is written in blood. The way the sentries were killed indicates the killer is experienced or that the sentries knew him and didn’t think he was a threat. It was either someone outside who was able to hide his tracks from Quinn and Willow, or it’s a traitor inside.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel thinks it’s someone from Rowansmark and the notes are part of their pain atonement tradition. If a Rowansmark citizen dishonors their city, leader, or family, instead of being thrown in jail, they get a pain sentence. If they survive, their honor is restored. If they don’t, their debt is paid by their death. The notes fit with that mentality. Quinn and Willow volunteer to search the Wasteland for the tracker.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Carrington army on their tail. They find a city and decide to stay in the ruins for the night.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn and Willow find Rowansmark tracker boot prints, kill some army scouts, and tell Logan the army is getting too close. They decide to create a fire barrier to give them some extra time to get away the next morning.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel is out collecting kindling, considering if she can sneak away and shoot the Commander. Ian wants her to go with him to kill the Commander because they’re very close and suggests that she should steal the device from Logan.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan was worried about Rachel sneaking off on a solo murder mission and explains his plan to use sound waves to overwhelm the receiver in the Commander’s wrist mark to explode it (right next to his artery) and kill him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They have a heart to heart about Logan feeling guilty because the Rowansmark tracker is after him and killing others because of him. Rachel admits she’s dreaming of her father Jared and Oliver’s deaths and being covered in blood. Someone sneaks up on them and cracks Logan over the head with a rock but Rachel and Quinn get him back to camp.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan wakes up and finds a dart in his room with the message “the marked will die to pay your debt.” The tracker was in their room. They go into the hall and find lots of doors marked with bloody Xs. Sylph’s door is one of them but none of the marked people are dead and the sentries are fine. Now they’re sure it was an inside job.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The crowd is scared because of the doors being marked. Rachel gets up and tells them the truth: there’s a traitor in their group and when she finds him, she will kill him and it won’t be pretty.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They light the barrier fire and get out of the city.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan explains to Rachel about the dart. They think the marked door people have been poisoned. They’re rechecking everyone’s wrist marks to make sure they’re from Baalboden and notice Sylph has a bruise.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They get attacked by highwaymen. Their newly trained fighters manage to kill the attackers but several people die. They realize the poison causes the marked ones to bleed out faster if they’re injured, and several uninjured people get sick and bleed out more slowly. Sylph gets sick.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn recognizes their symptoms and says that the poison has no antidote. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They bury their dead and Willow tells Logan she’s found a bridge. If he can blow it after they cross, they can put some distance between themselves and the army.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The army catches up to them again. Yes, this is becoming a theme. The group starts crossing the bridge while Logan preps the jars of explosives. Rachel goes with the sick and injured including Sylph. Ian says this is their chance to go kill the Commander but Rachel refuses to leave her dying friend.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jodi and Logan start throwing explosive at the soldiers. They’re going across the bridge and the soldiers are gaining. Logan stops to make a last stand with the explosives. Thom takes Logan’s place on the bridge. He’s got the bruises and doesn’t want to die horrifically. Logan escapes and Thom blows the bridge and plunges into the river. Rachel picks off some surviving soldiers with her bow and arrows.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Across the river, the Commander shouts that if they give up the controller, he’ll leave them alone. Rachel’s arrows can’t reach that far.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Sylph dies and Rachel loses her cool and runs through the forest. Quinn chases her and prevents her from falling into the river. Rachel is feeling progressively more dead inside.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They’re making camp when the tracker is spotted, but before they can catch him, some of his traps explode all over the camp. If they get burned by the smoke, they could die.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel takes a group and tries to get them out of the smoke but it overwhelms her. Someone grabs her and she gets burned; the person’s eyes look like Logan's. Logan goes looking for her and sees Quinn dragging her out of the smoke.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They make it to Lankenshire. The city leaders agree to take in the refugees and give them medical care.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel wakes up after 3 days. Logan explains where they are and what happened. She’s okay so he leaves her, but Rachel doesn’t think she can feel anything anymore and at least pain is real, so she starts picking at her burn just to feel the pain of it.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan finds Willow and gives her the controller to hide outside the city in case he’s attacked. Willow mentions that the townspeople are acting scared, like there’s someone watching them.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan finds a mural of the downfall of civilization and Commander Chase’s mission. The mural insinuates that maybe the Commander’s mission failed because he was a coward.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan finds Jeremiah with Darius, Lankenshire’s mapmaker. Darius recognizes Logan and says Logan is from Rowansmark. He says that during one of the Commander's visits to Rowansmark, Marcus McEntire’s baby son disappeared; Marcus claimed he died but couldn’t produce the body. Everyone suspected that the Commander took the baby so that Marcus, who was in charge of the Technological Advancement team, would help him. Nothing ever happened and they figured maybe Marcus wasn’t lying.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jeremiah says when the Commander got home from that trip, he killed everyone who’d accompanied him on the trip. He probably gave Logan to his (fake) mother because she’d just been widowed and it would be feasible that she’d been pregnant and no one knew. This explains why the Commander hated Logan and treated him like an outsider.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn finds Rachel self-harming and stops her, helps her work through her grief. Logan finds them hugging.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan accuses Quinn of taking advantage and being in love with Rachel. Quinn protests that he’s definitely not because do you KNOW how stubborn and bossy she is? He’s just trying to protect Jared’s daughter to repay Jared for saving him and Willow. Quinn tells Logan that Rachel was hurting herself and Logan realizes he didn’t realize Rachel was grieving so badly.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eloise goes into labor because we’re near the end of the book and that’s how fictional pregnancy works. Rachel is the only one around so she has to hold Eloise’s hand, finally confesses that she killed in Melkin in possible self-defense but Eloise isn’t mad, Eloise has a baby girl and names her Melli for her father. Rachel holds the baby and lets go of that last piece of guilt and decides she’s ready to kick some butt.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan has to explain his newfound identity to everyone. Then he explains that he kept the controller so the Commander wouldn’t have it and so that he could help the other city-states defend themselves. They debate whether to throw the Baalboden people out but decide not to if Logan will build them a replica to protect them.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Lankenshire leaders reveal that is blackmailing them. They built a powerful version of the controller and if Lankenshire doesn’t pay up, the trackers in the city will set the “tanniyn" on them. (Yes, it has a better name than Cursed One.) Logan agrees to build a device to overpower the trackers’ device.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Willow kills a Rowansmark tracker outside the city and retrieves the traitor’s last note. The words are familiar. Logan realizes that Ian told him something similar back in Baalboden and that it was something his father used to say.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They confront Ian who fills in the details of this story:</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">19 years ago, Marcus was working on a device to control the Cursed One. The Commander couldn’t allow James Rowan to have that much power, but realized he couldn’t bribe Marcus into helping him because of Rowansmark honor, so he found his weakness: Marcus' newborn son. If Marcus had gone to James Rowan, the honor thing would’ve meant the end of Marcus’ career and Logan’s probable death, so Marcus had to agree to the deal.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marcus gave the device to Jared Adams for the Commander, but then James Rowan learned it was missing, compromising Marcus’ honor. He has to return the controller and suffer a pain atonement. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian is Logan’s brother. He believes that Logan has known his own identity the entire time and chosen to betray his family to gain power for himself. Ian blames Logan for both of their parents’ deaths and reveals that he administered Marcus’ pain atonement in order to be accepted onto the military council in his father’s place. (He killed his father and went bonkers, hence the vendetta against Logan.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian followed Rachel and Logan back to Baalboden and he’s the reason the controller didn’t work and the tanniyn surfaced inside of Baalboden and killed nearly everyone. He also summoned it at the ferris wheel to see if Logan still had the controller.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian says if they kill him, the Rowansmark trackers will summon the tanniyns to destroy the city. Apparently there’s more than one still alive in the world so that’s probably not good.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian also says that ared Adams brought Marcus progress reports on Logan’s well-being. Did Jared know all along and protect Logan out of loyalty to the Commander? </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ian creates a diversion, knocks out Quinn and kidnaps Rachel. Rachel fights back but he knocks her out too. Willow and Logan try to follow him outside the city, but the gate is locked because the Commander’s army is outside waiting. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander demands the Baalboden refugees and the Rowansmark trackers refuse to give up Logan. They give him one last note from Ian, who wants Logan to bring the controller to Rowansmark or else he’ll give Logan’s punishment to Rachel and kill her. Logan is thrown into Lankenshire jail while the leaders decide what to do.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel wakes up and Ian begins to torture her. Quinn finds them and Ian stabs Quinn in the chest. Rachel thinks he’s dying but realizes that Quinn is wearing Dragonskin armor. He knew he couldn’t beat Ian, but he wanted to give Rachel a chance to get some weapons. He’s gripping the knife that’s not actually lodged in this chest and his hands are bleeding.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel hides a couple of blades on her person and pretends to cry about Quinn’s "death.” Ian grabs her again and carries her away.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel resolves to kill Ian, dismantle the tech, kill the Commander, save the day, etc.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tanniyn: what the Commander called "The Cursed One" - the firebreathing monsters that destroyed the world and killed most of the population</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Baalboden: the city where the Commander ruled and Rachel and Logan lived</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lankenshire: the city they escape to</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rowansmark: the city ruled by the Commander's primary rival, James Rowan. Source of the controller and also most of the trouble not caused by the Commander himself.</div>
</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-354733476347733832015-02-21T09:01:00.000-08:002015-02-21T09:24:01.763-08:00Defiance by C. J. Redwine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDkF3J0sepMgdzoQIK-dzjQ8U7_RA66tZ8Ob1JqaFRNIGJfxVbz-SdyWQ3PRJkUTAosDCBuUGe-jxZQYbLF-cTLpF3eOUUXE3W3TxfMTSSjIVHf38iJ9haqf6jXWxIrCOWq2ZmIp5flU/s1600/defiance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEDkF3J0sepMgdzoQIK-dzjQ8U7_RA66tZ8Ob1JqaFRNIGJfxVbz-SdyWQ3PRJkUTAosDCBuUGe-jxZQYbLF-cTLpF3eOUUXE3W3TxfMTSSjIVHf38iJ9haqf6jXWxIrCOWq2ZmIp5flU/s1600/defiance.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title:</b> Defiance</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>C. J. Redwine</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>Courier's Daughter #1</div>
<div>
- <i>Defiance</i> (August 2012)</div>
<div>
- Deception (August 2013)</div>
<div>
- Deliverance (August 2014)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11410430-defiance?ac=1">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While the other girls in the walled city-state of Baalboden learn to sew and dance, Rachel Adams learns to track and hunt. While they bend like reeds to the will of their male Protectors, she uses hers for sparring practice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When Rachel's father fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the city's brutal Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector: her father's apprentice, Logan—the boy she declared her love to and who turned her down two years before. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father's survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can't be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Basically, <a href="http://www.readingbystarlight.com/">Terri @ Reading by Starlight</a> is a goddess and completely smashed this recap. Thank you!</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
what went down</h2>
<b>Backstory:</b><br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">In a post-apocalyptic future, what's left of America is divided into nine city-states that have reverted to no freedom, no technology, and antiquated restriction of females. Decades ago, a rich businessman seeking a new source of renewable fuel had crews drill through the earth's crust. They woke up fire-breathing monsters who tracked prey by sound and possibly drawn to the noise (or maybe just because they’re violent), they destroyed all densely populated areas each time they surfaced. The military flooded those areas with traps and promptly died. The government sent one last-ditch mission of soldiers and geologists to seal the beasts back under the earth. This mission was led by Commander Chase, but they failed but survived, and there was no government left when they returned. Chase's team took charge, and spread out into nine city states ruled by himself and his team members, offering shelter and protection in exchange for allegiance. The last remaining monster was dubbed “The Cursed One” and through some means we don’t know, the Commander’s team is able to keep them outside of their city walls. Commander Chase built his city-state closer to the Cursed One's den than any of the other leaders. The city-states are surrounded by a forest called the Wasteland, which contains the ruins of America's cities and has grown up over most signs of civilization, though some houses remain. There’s almost no technology left, although citizens have identity chips in their wrists and the leaders have scanners to keep their population in control.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span style="text-align: justify;">The Commander apparently hates women and has designed his society to keep them weak and uneducated. A man from each girl's family is named as her Protector, and her husband becomes her new Protector upon being “Claimed” by him. Women can't walk anywhere without their Protector or the Commander will have them flogged. It is safe to say that the Commander is a giant wad of human crap. Jared Adams went against these laws and taught his daughter Rachel to read, fight, track and protect herself.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel's dad (Jared Adams), a courier and tracker, went into the Wasteland and hasn't returned. Everyone but Rachel believes he's dead. Oliver, a friend of her father's and Rachel's surrogate grandfather, will be named as her Protector. Rachel's mother died a long time ago and she has no one else. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan McEntire, 19, is her dad's apprentice, and Rachel doesn't like him (because she did when she was 15 and he rejected her out of loyalty to her father). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander summons them and legally declares that Jared is dead. His will specifies that Logan will become her Protector until her Claiming when she turns 17. Rachel protests but Logan intervenes before the Commander can punish her for her insolence, and says that he will agree to take on Rachel and she'll move in with him. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel agrees to go until her father returns, which leads the Commander to suspect that she knows his whereabouts. Logan assures him it's wishful thinking but the Commander is not convinced and threatens them both. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel decides to go over the Wall and find Jared with or without Logan's help. Logan is afraid that Rachel will do something crazy and tells her they're not leaving the city, but he's actually inventing a tracking device to help him find Jared.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Angry Rachel goes to the market alone despite the risks while Logan is on a supply run. While Logan is making black market contacts (with Thom and Drake), Rachel finds someone to take her to Oliver's bakery stall. There are guards everywhere, but Rachel says goodbye to Oliver and takes off for the Wall. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan shows up at her friend Sylphia's house where Rachel is supposed to be, but obviously she's not, and takes off running. He finds her just as she gets over the Wall but Rachel runs directly into the Commander.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander believes she knows where Jared is and doesn't believe Rachel is strong enough to attempt to track him and protect herself like she claims, then sneers over the foolishness of women in general. We hate him. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan tries to keep her from telling the Commander anything important, but Commander Crapface has got a sword to her neck and she has to admit that Jared took her on his last mission to the city-state of Rowansmark where someone gave them a mysterious package as they were leaving the city. It's well known that Commander Chase and his former major James Rowan don't get along and frequently send spies to each other's city-states.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jared hid the package on the way home and the Commander decides Logan and Rachel will fetch it for him. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He is also way skeevy toward Rachel for the first of many times in the novel, because what’s a little misogyny without a perverted villain?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan also notices a ring on the Commander's finger, a blood-red stone bisecting by a gold dragon talon. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan and Rachel return home, arguing, and Logan finally shouts that they were GOING to go after Jared if she'd just been patient and then he almost kisses her. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They go for more supplies and the Commander has guards following them. Logan says he's dropping Rachel at Oliver's because the people he's meeting with are rebels and if he gets caught, at least she won't go down with him. Rachel wants to go anyway because she's tough, but Logan convinces her that if he is caught, someone has to go look for her dad. It's super cute.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Oliver takes Rachel for a walk, and she realizes that if she and Logan leave, the Commander will probably torture Oliver for information or just spite because he is the kind of sadistic douchebag that would do that kind of thing. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The ground begins to shake, signaling that the Cursed One will surface (outside the Wall); it's trading day so people are outside and in danger. Rachel and Oliver get knocked down and the Cursed One is spewing fire everywhere. The Commander rides in and walks up to it, Cursed One turns tail and goes back underground. Both Rachel and Logan notice the Commander eyeballing Rachel and Oliver together and decide he's in danger. Despite his age and slowness, they'll have to take him along. If you're thinking Luke Skywalker and his aunt/uncle, you are on the right track.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan works on the tracking device while Rachel spars with her father's Switch, a staff with one weighted end and one end concealing a blade. She's good with knives and arrows but needs more practice with the Switch. Logan invented it and agrees to teach her. He's also working on a tracking device for Rachel because Logan always has 57 back up plans and figures the Commander will betray them at some point. He's also worried that the Commander will eventually assault her and tells her to fight back if she has to.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Flashback: Logan's father died before he was born, and the Commander wouldn't let his mother be Claimed again. He defied protocol and assigned himself as her Protector, but didn't check on her weeks at a time. He's hated Logan from the start for some reason we don’t know. Some of the good men in town (Jared, Oliver) would take them food when they could, but then Oliver got sick when Jared was gone and Logan’s mother went to the market because Logan was starving to death. She got caught and the Commander had her killed. Logan was declared a social outcast at the age of six and left to fend for himself. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan and Rachel spar and he almost kisses her again but Oliver interrupts. DANG IT OLIVER. Oliver is actually fine with their budding romance but wants to make sure Logan treats his girl right, which is adorable.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Oliver was talking to some of the highwaymen (travelling traders who go between city-states. They're not bad guys exactly but it's better to stay away from them.) who were saying that Jared is the most wanted man in the Wasteland. James Rowan has offered a huge reward for his capture - alive, because he wants the package back. Rachel and Logan convince Oliver that he has to go with them when they escape.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Claiming for the older girls is the next day and Logan is glad Rachel isn't in it because all of the single men in the city are idiots. He takes her to Sylph's house for one last visit. Sylph is preparing for her Claiming the next day.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander comes in and abducts Rachel while the very repressed townsfolk do literally nothing about it. He puts her in a wagon with a person-shaped blanket lump and accuses her of keeping secrets, stabbing the lump that turns out to be Oliver, who was supposed to be gone already but got caught. The Commander kills Oliver and tells Rachel he's putting her in the Claiming the next day. If/when Logan Claims her, she must turn him down and be declared a ward of the state, then he will let her go out to find the package. If she doesn't, he'll kill Logan. He's a rat bastard so she knows he's not bluffing. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He leaves her covered in Oliver's blood and a guard puts her in fresh clothing while Rachel is busy going into mental shock. This part was very creepy for reasons I can't articulate.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In town, Logan bargains an identiti-chip blocker (that he invented) for information on the Commander: he wears a pendant which he never removes, and he sent every tracker except for his best, Melkin, out on a mission that day. A kid with a message tells Logan Sylph's dad is looking for him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan finds Rachel at her friend's house huddled on the floor in total shock. He's afraid the Commander has raped her and tries to put her in a wagon so she doesn't have to walk, but this freaks her out more and she runs away. He catches her but some men with swords surround them. Rachel goes into fight mode and Logan has to prevent her from killing the men with her concealed knives..</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan gets her home and finds a note from the Commander about the Claiming. There's also a very low cut dress that doesn't cover her breasts, and in a town where pants are off-limits to women, this is probably as good as naked. Logan gives her the new tracking bracelet and a necklace that belonged to his mother. Rachel tells him about the Commander's demands so he won't Claim her the next day and they make a plan to run away right after the ceremony.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They hide their bags and Logan mentally criticizes every single man in the village. One of them tries to Claim Rachel, Logan accepts his offer, which the Commander wasn't expecting. He threatens Rachel and then slaps her and then it’s chaos. Logan attacks the Commander and realizing she's too valuable for him to let her die, threatens to kill herself if the Commander doesn't let Logan go. He throws Logan in jail instead and tells Rachel that Tracker Melkin will go into the Wasteland with her.</li>
</ul>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><i>The story breaks up into two parts: the Rachel/Melkin part and the Logan in jail part.</i></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rachel:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Melkin isn't very friendly but Rachel is tough. Melkin slams his staff into the ground and the Cursed One attacks soon after they leave the city. Melkin saves Rachel twice so we're not sure if he's a total jerk or not. Turns out the Commander has Melkin's wife locked up in the dungeon. She's very pregnant and he won't release her until Melkin delivers the package.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They find one of Jared's spots and one of Rachel's mother's ribbons is tied to a tree, so they know he's been there. They begin to think they're being followed. At the first safe house, they see guards following them. Melkin plans to kill them but before he can, a Rowansmark tracker kills them. He's been following them to find where the package is. Melkin and Rachel are kind of getting along because Melkin loves his wife so he must not be all bad, but Rachel is wary because that means he'd do anything to save her from jail.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel and Melkin keep moving and find the second safe house burned to the ground. They also find two teenagers from one of the Tree Villages; they lead her to Jared's grave. Willow and Quinn are siblings and Jared saved them at the cost of his own life. He gave Quinn the package for when Rachel came after him. Jared didn't want her to use this, but give it to Logan to be destroyed.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel opens it; it's a metal wand with buttons. She demands an explanation (against Melkin's wishes). It produces frequencies the Cursed One can hear and that controls his movements.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Melkin wants to turn the wand in to save his wife Eloise. Rachel doesn't want to hand the Commander more power even if it means Logan and Eloise die. Melkin is in denial about how much a crapweasel the Commander is and tries to take the device.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel thinks he's going to kill her and in their fight, she kills him instead. He says he was just going to take it and leave her, setting off a storm of guilt for Rachel. Melkin dies and Rachel can’t be sure if he was really trying to kill her or not. She buries him and Quinn and Willow decide to travel with her.</li>
</ul>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><b>Logan:</b></span><br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan is in jail and Melkin's pregnant wife Eloise is across from him. The Commander beats Logan and makes snarky comments about his father being disloyal. We don't know why but I have theories. Logan uses his jail chains to hit the Commander, who in his anger reveals that he instructed Melkin to kill Rachel once they had the package if she didn't cooperate. He has Logan branded with the symbol of his Brute Squad. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan manages to grab his cloak, but gets very sick. A girl comes to the jail and brings him water, whispers that "they" are going to help him - Thom and Drake. Eloise begs him to stop Melkin from becoming a killer, eventually tells him what signal Melkin was supposed to give to the Commander when he returned.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan's been in jail for a week. He uses the explosives cleverly disguised as cloak buttons and the detonator hidden in his boot sole and casually explodes the wall to escape. He grabs his secondary backup bag and escapes into the Wasteland like the thorough-planning Macgyver he is. He travels quickly, seeing the dead guards at the first safe house and ignoring his various injuries.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He runs into a Rowansmark battalion and kills their watchman, then has to evade them through the forest for days. He finds Rachel in the forest with Quinn and is about to climb out of the trees to meet her when the Rowansmark tracker attacks. Logan tackles him and as they're grappling, Rachel shoots the tracker between the eyes with an arrow. She knew the tracker was there the whole time because she is a badass. Also there's a good hug right here.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The tracker's body starts beeping and explodes, blowing their cover. They're arguing about escape when Rachel slams Melkin's staff into the ground and lo, the Cursed One is there. Apparently the staff has some kind of sonic pulse generator on the end. They don't have time to escape and the Rowansmark battalion surrounds them. Logan thinks they're about to die but Rachel digs out the wand and tells him to figure it out. He tells her he loves her and gets to work.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He pushes the wrong button and the Cursed One sets people and woods on fire. This is not ideal. They're about to die when he pushes the last button and the Cursed One goes back underground.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn wants to help them and Willow wants to see them overthrow their leader (out of curiosity more than nobility - she's blunt but I like her!). Rachel is dealing with some "I just stabbed a guy to death" issues and does not want to talk about being in love with Logan because now she’s broken. After seeing the brand on Logan's neck, she decides to solve all her problems by giving the Commander the horrific, legendary death he deserves. I'm having trouble faulting her for that one.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel tells Logan that her father is dead and about how she had to kill Melkin. She's upset because she made the wrong call and because now she's a murderer whom Logan could never love. He washes the blood off her hands (literally, in the river) and kisses her and yay.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Quinn admits that he killed a man once too and that's why he and Willow are outcasts. He doesn't want to bring his sister into a war to satisfy her curiosity so they agree to wait in the woods for a while to see how things turn out. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan and Rachel strategize and decide to make a fake wand to give to the Commander. They approach the city to meet him and use the staff to summon the Cursed One. The Commander says he's going to kill Logan, that he's been waiting to kill him since the day he was born. We still don't know why. The fake wand doesn't work on the Cursed One and he's about to get burned, so the Commander rips out his necklace - some kind of lizard foot that stops the Cursed One from killing him. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Hidden with the real wand, Rachel tries to make it kill the Commander but it won't hurt him because of the necklace. They think it must be from the Cursed One's mate or children and he’s confused by the smell. Logan decides to try and steal it then stab the Commander with his sword, but before he can, the Cursed One goes for the city. Neither the Commander nor Rachel can drive him away and he erupts inside the Wall and sets everything on fire. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Logan and Rachel get inside to try and rescue people. Drake's daughter Nola, the prisoner visitor, helps Logan collect acid and glycerin and jars so he can explode the wall and everyone can escape the burning city. They start throwing the jars of explosives at the Cursed One.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Rachel runs at it with her knives and it spits fire at her. Logan thinks she's dead, but like the badass she is, she slides under the column of fire and tries to hack at its soft belly. She wounds it but it goes back underground before they can kill it.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Commander is missing. The citizens are divided between hating and loving Rachel/Logan. The haters leave for another city-state. Survivors who like them stay and they try to regroup. They decide to find the Commander and stop him, plus warn the other city-states about Rowansmark's dangerous technology and destroy it.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
<i>Protector:</i> the male family member or husband legally responsible for a woman<br />
<i>Claiming:</i> the ceremony where bachelors go get their wives<br />
<i>The Cursed One:</i> firebreathing monster that lives underground and destroys everything <br />
<i>Baalboden:</i> the city where Rachel and Logan live, controlled by Commander Jason Chase</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-85208864601286991512015-02-21T08:37:00.000-08:002015-02-21T09:23:44.798-08:00A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> A Thousand Pieces of You<br />
<b>Author:</b> Claudia Gray<br />
<b>Series:</b> Firebird #1<br />
- <i>A Thousand Pieces of You</i> (November 2014)<br />
- Ten Thousand Skies Above You (November 2015)<br />
- Untitled (2016)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17234658-a-thousand-pieces-of-you">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
summary </h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2>
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Marguerite's father is supposedly dead - killed by one of his assistants. Theo and Marguerite hop through different parallel worlds to find Henry's killer. Marguerite confronts Paul and discovers that he didn't actually kill her father. There's a lot of time spent in Russia, which includes some sexy times, and several more "normal" worlds are involved. Paul tells Marguerite that the Triad are after her because she's the only one who can travel through the worlds flawlessly. Theo turns out to be a spy for the Triad, and it's very upsetting because Theo from Marguerite's world has had his body taken over for some time. Marguerite finds that her father is alive, and returns home with him. Spy!Theo disappears, and Paul returns home too. Yay!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
what went down</h2>
<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The book kicks off with Marguerite and Theo setting out to a parallel world in a quest to find Marguerite's father's killer. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Paul, one of Henry and Sophie's assistants, is said to have killed Henry and Marguerite wants vengeance. Unfortunately, things are difficult because Paul has a Firebird, a device that allows him to travel through all the different parallel universes at will. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Luckily, Theo has constructed two spare Firebirds and he and Marguerite (who really needs a nickname because her name is hard to type) go after Paul. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Some quick rules of parallel universe travelling:</li>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The original traveller can only visit parallel worlds in which they exist, or where their other self is still alive. If their other self died years ago, they can't get in. If their other self never existed in the first place, same deal. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">If the traveller does find a world in which they exist, they take over their other self's body. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The traveller has to keep the Firebird on them at all times, otherwise their other self takes over again and the traveller forgets everything. This can be undone by putting the Firebird back on.</li>
</ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite first ends up in London, where her parents are both dead and she's living with her aunt. Theo is in the US, and has to catch a flight over. When he gets there, Marguerite finds him shooting up in the bathroom.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They both go to a conference because Paul will be there. Marguerite chases Paul and he tells her that he didn't kill her father, and claims he didn't even know that Henry was dead. He then switches worlds. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite and Theo follow Paul. This time they land in a world that seemingly never went through the Industrial Revolution. Marguerite is a Russian princess, descended from the Romanov's, and Theo is stuck in France. Marguerite's mother died while giving birth to her fourth child, and Marguerite's father is working in the palace as a teacher. Her fake father is the ruler of all of Russia, and Paul is a palace guard. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite breaks her Firebird and Paul loses his to Lieutenant Paul's boss. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite's fake uncle tries to kill the entire family, but Lieutenant Paul helps Marguerite get away and it turns out there aren't any other casualties. Yet. Lieut. Paul and Marguerite have sex in the woods. Twice. Then he takes her to her family. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite tells both Lieut. Paul and Teacher!Henry about the parallel universe stuff, and they believe her. Henry fixes her Firebird, and Lieut. Paul is sent off to fight fake!Uncle's army. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Marguerite follows Lieut. Paul, and discovers that he is gravely wounded. Lieut. Paul dies and it's very sad and Marguerite gets upset. Then she realises that her Paul might have gotten away with the Firebird. So Marguerite uses her Firebird to follow him. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">This time they land in a place that is very similar to their own world. Theo shows up at the house and takes Marguerite to Triad HQ. Paul texts her and tells her she's in danger, so had better GTFO. Marguerite makes excuses and leaves, and goes and meets up with Paul.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Paul tells Marguerite that the bad guys are after her, because they did something to her using a box that enables her to travel between worlds without needing 'Reminders' from the Firebird. Paul also suspects that Henry isn't really dead, and sends himself and Marguerite into another world to get away from the Triad. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">This time, Marguerite ends up on a submarine, Paul on another one, and Theo follows and ends up in a place called New Perth. Marguerite's parents are both on the submarine with her, as they're both oceanographers in this world. Marguerite gives her Firebird to Henry, because she guesses that this is her real father, but he's just forgotten. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Henry remembers, and it's revealed that he was kidnapped and placed in this world by the Triad. He wants to go home, but the problem is that they only have one Firebird between the two of them. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Theo reaches the submarine, and he and Marguerite take a trip down to the ocean floor. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Paul calls Marguerite, and tells her that he's taken some stuff developed by the Triad which prevents travellers from forgetting themselves. Marguerite connects the dots, and realises that Theo has been working for the Triad as a spy this entire time. The Theo that has been travelling with Marguerite isn't the "real" Theo from her world, but someone who took over the "real" Theo's body a while ago. </li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Marguerite and Theo fight in the sub, and Marguerite escapes in a pod. She reaches the surface, and Paul finds her. He takes her back to her parents' submarine, and then tells her he's going back for Theo because he's still a version of his friend. Marguerite luckily grabbed Theo's Firebird before she escaped, and she gives it to her father so they can both go home. They get back to her world, and there's a steamy reunion between their parents. The "real" Theo finds them and explains that the Spy!Theo had started taking over his body months ago. He's sad because now he thinks he won't have a chance with Marguerite. He goes with Marguerite to Paul's house, and Paul eventually gets back from the other world and answers the door. Theo leaves, and Marguerite goes inside.</div>
</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-68083994943110947582015-02-14T13:35:00.002-08:002015-02-14T14:57:50.134-08:00Seraphina by Rachel Hartman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> Seraphina<br />
<b>Author: </b>Rachel Hartman<br />
<b>Series: </b>Seraphina #1<br />
- <i>Seraphina</i> (July 2012)<br />
- Shadow Scale (March 2015)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19549841-seraphina" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.<br />
<br />
Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
Seraphina is a half-dragon with an ability to have visions of others like her. On Orma's suggestion, she creates a mnemonic device in the form of a garden that captures the grotesques in their avatars which she then tends to every day. As the assistant to the court's composer, Viridius, Seraphina is careful not to draw attention to herself. In time, however, Prince Lucian Kiggs is impressed by her knowledge of dragons and asks her to help him find who killed his uncle, Prince Rufus. They find that the killer is Imlann, her grandfather who has been plotting to take over Tanamoot with the help of the 12 generals and by killing the co-founders of the Comonot Treaty on the Treaty Eve. Disguised as Princess Glisselda's governess, Lady Corongi, Imlann poisons Princess Dione who dies and Queen Lavonda who goes into a coma. In his face off with Orma, Imlann is taken down by the Censors. The generals however, have seized control over Tanamoot and plan to go to war with Goredd. Glisselda and Lucian are shocked to find out that Seraphina is a half-dragon and that there are others like her, but they accept her. In the end, Glisselda takes over the throne, Seraphina readies herself to go in search of other ityasaari, Orma is pardoned by the Comonot but has to hide away from the Censors, and Lucian promises Seraphina that they'd fight the oncoming war with the dragons before doing anything about their feelings for each other. They do kiss once, though.<br />
<br />
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>In the prologue, Seraphina reveals that she remembers the time she spent in her mother's womb and bits of her birth (during which her mother died).</li>
<li>In the aftermath of her birth, Seraphina's father, Claude Dombegh, finds a new wife to cover up the death of her mother and moves back to Lavondaville.</li>
<li>When a dropped psalter reveals that Seraphina's patron saint is the heretic St. Yirtrudis, the priest hurriedly declares that it must be St. Capiti, the patroness of scholars. Afterwards, Seraphina's nurse glues the pages of St. Yirtrudis together on Claude Dombegh's command (a common practice due to the fact that St. Yirtrudis didn't believe in Heaven).</li>
<li>Despite being a dragon with no soul, Seraphina's uncle, Orma saves her life three times.</li>
<li>Years pass and Seraphina is now an assistant to court's composer, Viridius.</li>
<li>Seraphina ends up attracting the attention of the entire court when she plays at Prince Rufus's funeral who was decapitated via a draconian method of killing.</li>
<li>Sons of St. Ogdo, the saint of warriors, harass Basind but scatter when captain of the guard, Prince Lucian Kiggs arrive. Due to this event and more, Basind is assigned under the care of Orma to teach the newskin some manners.</li>
<li>This is all an act because Basind is actually a Censor sent to spy on Orma and see if he needs to be excised of all human emotions after living among them for so long.</li>
<li>The whole thing however, compels Seraphina to speak up for the dragons which attracts Kiggs attention.</li>
<li>At Glisselda's soiree at the Blue Salon, Seraphina spots Miss Fusspots from her garden who's actually Dame Okra Carmine, the Ninysh ambassador to Goredd.</li>
<li>Seraphina is stunned to discover that all the grotesques in her garden are half-dragons like her.</li>
<li>Seraphina overhears Josef, Earl of Aspig, recounting the day Prince Rufus was killed which prompts Seraphina to ask how he's so sure it was the work of a dragon. Kiggs hears everything.</li>
<li>In time, Kiggs sees that Seraphina could actually help him figure out who decapitated Prince Rufus.</li>
<li>The coin Orma received at Prince Rufus's funeral turns out to be from his father Imlann's hoard after which Orma asks Seraphina to inform Kiggs of Imlann's possible involvement in the whole ordeal.</li>
<li>However, Seraphina comes to know about the knights claiming to have sighted a rogue dragon and bluffs her way in order to question the knights and gather concrete evidence for Kiggs than just a coin.</li>
<li>Kiggs catches her and is skeptical about Imlann's involvement so Seraphina sends him a note after meeting with Orma that Sir James Peascod might be able to identify the dragon better.</li>
<li>Mistaking that Seraphina plans to go in search of the knight herself, Kiggs agrees to go with her.</li>
<li>The next day, Ardmagar arrives at Castle Orison and after sighting him, Seraphina's memory box starts leaking after which another maternal memory ambushes her.</li>
<li>In one of the dressing rooms, Seraphina finds Lars, Viridius's protegee, arguing with the Josef, Earl of Apsig, who's actually Kate's half-brother. Lars is Loud Lad from Seraphina's Garden.</li>
<li>At dawn the next day, Seraphina and Kiggs leave for the valley of Mews River, the hunting route of Prince Rufus.</li>
<li>They spot dozens of crows and conclude that it could be a dragon's cesspit. On inspection, Kiggs finds two horse medals belonging to Prince Rufus's horse confirming that a dragon killed him.</li>
<li>And oh, Kiggs thinks that Seraphina is in love with Orma as he cannot find another reaSeraphina her to have such vast knowledge of dragons.</li>
<li>They find the cave of the knights where they meet Sir James Peascod who confirms that the rogue dragon is indeed General Imlann.</li>
<li>Imlann set the barn, situated close to the cave, on fire in order to determine if the knights are any good as they were before their banishment in lieu of the Comonot's Treaty four decades ago.</li>
<li>The knights demonstrate drachomachia which is as awesome as it sounds.</li>
<li>Snow starts falling as Seraphina and Kiggs start their journey back to the palace however, they encounter Imlann in his dragon form only a few moments into their journey.</li>
<li>Imlann stops them because he smelled a saar, which is of course Seraphina, who understands Mootya, the language of the dragons.</li>
<li>Seraphina contacts Orma via his earring and proceeds to bluff her way out of the deathly situation (she does slip a little) yet Imlann is apparently satisfied and flies away.</li>
<li>Thinking she's a dragon, Kiggs turns on Seraphina and accuses her of possessing a draconian device; Seraphina tells him that he's mistaken only to find Orma and Basind landing on a hill close by.</li>
<li>Kiggs arrests Orma and Basind for unauthorized transformation and Seraphina for her involvement with dragons.</li>
<li>On their way back to the palace, Seraphina realizes she's in love with Kiggs and in frustration pulls off one of her scales on her arm. In private, if course.</li>
<li>Back at the palace, Kiggs hands them over to the Queen and Comonot and turns in for the night.</li>
<li>Basind is excused, Seraphina is asked to hand over the transmitting device, and Orma has his scholarship and travel permissions revoked.</li>
<li>In private, Orma requests Comonot to get the Censors off his case, but truth about Seraphina comes out and Comonot orders Orma to put himself down for excision in a week.</li>
<li>Refusing to have memories of her sister, Linn, and Seraphina removed, Orma plans to travel south and run away. He gives Seraphina the earring back, just in case.</li>
<li>Earl Josef is under suspicions since he was absent from the palace when Kiggs and Seraphina went off to meet the knights.</li>
<li>Seraphina has a vision of Fruit Bat on fire but it's just Fruit Bat holding Seraphina's memory tin. Fruit Bat turns out to be 11 years old Abdo and one of the Pygegyrian dancers trying to contact Seraphina since the funeral.</li>
<li>Seraphina recieves another of of Linn's memory where Linn learns of Imlann's treason against the treaty; they have a face off where Imlann's ends up injured.</li>
<li>The next day Viridis asks Seraphina to take the dress rehearsal day for Treaty Eve off and tells her that he knew all along that she's the daughter of Linn.</li>
<li>Seraphina discovers that everyone thinks she's a dragon except Guntard.</li>
<li>Princess Dione and Lady Corongi slashes her arm to prove it but are shocked to find it to be not the case as Seraphina's blood is red not silver.</li>
<li>A drunk Seraphina is taken home by her father.</li>
<li>She goes to meet Orma the next day who has given Basind the slip. They have a quick goodbye as Basind has followed them and Seraphina distracts him by setting the Sons of St. Ogdo on him while Orma slips away.</li>
<li>Seraphina spots the Ardmagar dressed as a monk and decides to follow him into a church where Thomas Broadwick (who once threatened her for buying prohibited draconian devices from quitgl) stabs her in her scales (he was the one who Seraphina saw talking to Earl Josef a while ago). Comonot kills him.</li>
<li>Kiggs tells her that he and Glisselda wants her to stay.</li>
<li>Believing that Earl Joself is Imlann, Kiggs, Seraphina, Glisselda along with Dame Okra, Abdo and Lars plan to keep an eye all times at Comonot, the Queen and Princess Dione on Treaty Eve.</li>
<li>On Treaty Eve, Kiggs and Seraphina are talking when Dame Okra calls them to sort the matter of Comonot wanting to leave early.</li>
<li>Alarmed by the absence of the royal family, they sprint off to find Princess Dione who faints under the effects of the poisoned wine right after uttering Apsig's name.</li>
<li>Dame Okra leads Kiggs and Seraphina in search of Queen Lavonda and Glisselda and find them toasting to a new year with Lady Corongi and Earl Josef.</li>
<li>Queen Lavonda drinks a sip before they're stopped by Kiggs and goes into a coma later during the night.</li>
<li>Lady Corongi takes Glisselda with her and runs away after seeing that accusing Josef will be to no avail.</li>
<li>Lady Corongi is Imlann who takes off towards the sally port and transforms into a dragon with Glisselda on his shoulder.</li>
<li>Desparate, Seraphina tries to talk Imlann into taking her instead, tells her she's his granddaughter, and that Ardmagar and half the royal family is dead.</li>
<li>Lars plays his great war pipes to distract Imlann while Abdo climbs on his neck to hold Imlann's mouth close and Kiggs stabs him in the foot to free Glisselda.</li>
<li>Orma arrives at Seraphina's call and there's an epic father-son face off as dragons with Abdo holding on to Imlann's neck.</li>
<li>It's all over when the Censors arrive and set Imlann on fire.</li>
<li>Orma is injured and Abdo is safe.</li>
<li>Kiggs and Glisselda are shocked to discover that Seraphina is a half-dragon and that there are others like her.</li>
<li>Princess Dione, Glisselda's mother, dies from the effects of the poison.</li>
<li>The next day, Seraphina is asked to join a meeting with the dignitaries from other countries, Princess Glisselda, Claude Dombegh as well as Lars and Abdo.</li>
<li>The generals have seized control of Tanamoot and demand Comonot's immediate return to his country if they want to avoid a war.</li>
<li>Claude Dombegh comes clean about marrying a dragon.</li>
<li>The meeting decides that Goredd, Samsan, Porphyry, and Ninshy will together go to war with Tanamoot for peace.</li>
<li>Seraphina goes to the infirmary to bid goodbye to Orma who'll be leaving with Eskar (a former Censor) to hide and avoid excision by the Board of Censors.</li>
<li>(It's a very emotional goodbye, I cried).</li>
<li>Glisselda and Seraphina have an emotional moment after which Glisselda sends her to fetch Kiggs.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
Seraphina arrives in Kiggs tower to find him in the balcony. Seraphina tells him everything about her life and professes her love. Kiggs tells him about his life and how he was lost until he heard her sing at her father's wedding which prompted him to investigate the truth of things. Seraphina and Kiggs sing that song again and it is beautiful. Kiggs kisses her scales on her arm and Seraphina kisses him on the lips. They decide to not act on their feelings as Kiggs might very well have to marry Glisselda (being engaged to her and all), the fact that they're going at war with Tanamoot, and that Seraphina will be going off in search of other half-dragons. In the end, Seraphina finally feels like she belongs.<br />
<br />
<h2>
anything else</h2>
Comonot's Treaty - An agreement establishing peace between Goredd and all of dragonkind.<br />
Dracomachia - The Goreddi form of martial art that St. Ogdo invented to fight dragons. <br />
Ityasaari - Human-dragon hybrids in Porphyrian language.<br />
Grotesques - Mental avatars of the half-dragons that Seraphina has visions of.<br />
Mootya - The language of dragons.<br />
Newskin - A dragon who's not experienced at taking human form and living among humans.<br />
Patron saint - Key figures in Goreddi religion, patron saints are assigned to infants when they drop the psalter to reveal the specific saint's page it opens to.<br />
Psalter - Book of illustrated devotional poetry for every major Saint.<br />
Quigutl - Subspecies of dragons who are unable to transform, are flightless with an extra set of arms.<br />
Saar - Dragon in Porphyrian language.<br />
Saarantrai - A dragon in its human form (plural: sarantraas).<br />
Seraphina's Garden - A system of cognitive architecture that stops Seraphina's visions from striking her unconscious. The seventeen ityasaari in Seraphina's garden each have a mental avatar and a space of their own in which they stay. As long as they're tended to, the ityasaari don't bother Seraphina. (Not much, however, could be done to prevent her maternal memories from striking her unconscious.)<br />
Sons of St. Ogdo - A group that's unhappy with the treaty and despise dragons.</div>
Sanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09297915931078500505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-81697018454092282572015-02-14T03:03:00.002-08:002015-02-14T03:03:31.941-08:00The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50y56C0iIACDPUgXqSTnB8p8FmRqw44hO14Y2wa3BzfrgMIM-JdS8Nsv9UhgreKWvD42h2BRadcUS1e2sMf46ru60-Jni2xQ_4MLiUnbY8baespgRxyS_BGUWbEe_o-_q-xH9IAsuySE/s1600/the+emerald+atlas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh50y56C0iIACDPUgXqSTnB8p8FmRqw44hO14Y2wa3BzfrgMIM-JdS8Nsv9UhgreKWvD42h2BRadcUS1e2sMf46ru60-Jni2xQ_4MLiUnbY8baespgRxyS_BGUWbEe_o-_q-xH9IAsuySE/s1600/the+emerald+atlas.jpg" height="320" width="218" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>The Emerald Atlas</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>John Stephens</div>
<div>
<b>Series:</b> The Books of Beginning</div>
<div>
- <i>The Emerald Atlas </i>(January 2011)</div>
<div>
- The Fire Chronicle (October 2012)</div>
<div>
- The Black Reckoning (March 2015)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8619814-the-emerald-atlas">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Called “A new Narnia for the tween set” by the New York Times and perfect for fans of the His Dark Materials series, The Emerald Atlas brims with humor and action as it charts Kate, Michael, and Emma's extraordinary adventures through an unforgettable, enchanted world.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These three siblings have been in one orphanage after another for the last ten years, passed along like lost baggage.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yet these unwanted children are more remarkable than they could possibly imagine. Ripped from their parents as babies, they are being protected from a horrible evil of devastating power, an evil they know nothing about.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Until now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Before long, Kate, Michael, and Emma are on a journey through time to dangerous and secret corners of the world...a journey of allies and enemies, of magic and mayhem. And—if an ancient prophesy is correct—what they do can change history, and it is up to them to set things right.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
This recap was written and submitted by our sidekick, <a href="http://rachelsreadingcorner11.blogspot.com.au/">Rachel</a>! </div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Siblings Kate, Michael and Emma are transferred to a new orphanage in Cambridge Falls where they discover a book that can transport them through time. Michael gets stuck in the past on their first travel and from there they travel back and forth through time trying to fix various mistakes and defeat an evil witch named the Countess, who is forcing the villagers of Cambridge Falls to look for a magical treasure long lost - the Emerald Atlas that the siblings posses.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Siblings Kate, Emma and Michael are living in the Edgar Allan Poe Home for the Hopeless and Incorrigible Orphans, owned by the nasty Miss Crumley. We find out that this is their twelfth orphanage in ten years. They are sure their parents will come back for them, not believing they are dead. Their last name is only the letter “P”.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A lady comes to adopt them but Michael and Emma make fun of her hat and she leaves horrified. Two weeks later, Miss Crumley sends them off to an orphanage up north called Cambridge Falls. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The siblings are put on a train and when they arrive at the station no-one can them anything about Cambridge Fall. Randomly, a thick fog rolls into the station, a boat appears, they get on it and the boat-master sails them across the lake to an island. Here they get onto a horse-drawn carriage and the driver, named Abraham, tells them they are the only ones at this orphanage. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate falls asleep during the trip and dreams of a house. They arrive at the orphanage and Kate realises that the orphanage is actually the house she dreamt about – spooky!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In the house, Abraham gives them a picture of the house from fifteen years ago. Abraham tells them what their island used to be like, making weird mention to a group of missing children. He won’t talk further about it. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The children go exploring around the house and find an old room with creepy stuff like a blanked-page book.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Michael slips Abraham’s picture into the blank book and Emma, Kate and him suddenly find themselves at the bottom of Cambridge Falls. They realise they have been transported into the photo. They see a young Abraham. A creature attacks them. The children run into a clearing where a bunch of thirty or forty children are standing, guarded by nine other creatures. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A boy named Stephen McClattery tells them about these creatures – called Screechers – and tells that a mysterious “she” keeps all these children in her house, despite them not being orphans. The children’s mothers are nearby watching and crying.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A man and an incredibly beautiful girl arrive on a motorbike. Steven calls the lady “the Countess” and says she is the woman he was talking about. She tells the crowd that she isn’t happy that “their men” have not found “what she is looking for” even after two years and that his is her warning, for every week that they do not find “it”, she will kill a child. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A man appears in the crowd and kills three Screechers. The Screechers start screaming. Emma, Michael and Kate are paralysed but manage to shove a picture of the present-day house (one Michael took earlier) into the blank book and Emma and Kate appear in the house. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The girls get to meet Dr Pym, the orphanage’s owner, and talk to him. They pretend Michael is sick but do not know where he really is. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The girls attempt to find Abraham but cannot. Kate gets out the blank-paged book before she goes to bed to “read” and gets visions when she runs her fingers over the pages. Black marks appear on her fingers and she faints. Emma wakes her. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Abraham admits that Dr. Pym is a wizard and teaches the girls about the history of magic. He gives them photos of the Countess and hints that the thing she was asking them men to look for was a magical book. They find a picture of Michael with a “help me” sign and travel back in time. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The photo was a trap. A short fight ensues but Emma and Kate are captured by the Screechers. They are taken to the Countess who gives them the typical brag-about-my-evilness speech. She explains that she is looking for the three Book of Beginnings – books that the ancient magicians used to record their discoveries. Michael is revealed to have set them up, in the hope the Countess would find their parents in return. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Michael, Emma and Kate are thrown in prison with Stephen, Annie and the other stolen children. They manage to escape with Young Abraham through a secret passageway. Wolves are sent after the children but they avoid capture. The man, later revealed to be called Gabriel, from their first time travel experience saves them and takes them to his cabin. He tells them his story, and talks about a monster that was kept caged in a boat with him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Gabriel goes to fetch his villager’s wisewoman but Screechers approach. They escape through a secret passageway in Gabriel’s cabin but are shortly ambushed. The children run ahead but get separated. Emma goes back to help Gabriel, who is fighting the Screechers off, and Kate runs ahead, chasing a vision. Michael follows her. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma saves Gabriel from the Screechers led by Cavendish. She is shot with an arrow. Gabriel treats her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate and Michael are captured by dwarves. Michael wins them over with his knowledge but they are still thrown in jail for trespassing. In their cell is Dr. Pym, who explains to them the connection between the Countess and Hamish, the dwarves’ king. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate, Michael and Dr. Pym are called to a meeting with the dwarfish king and court. They are threaten until they agree to open the vault containing the Book of Beginnings. Dr. Pym admits to be a living key to the vault, and says the children are also human keys.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma is healed by a wisewoman. Gabriel has fallen ill – he has been poisoned and is dying. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Michael, Kate and Hamish head off to the Dead City. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma and her healer, named Granny Peet, convince the villagers they need to fight the Countess.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Fergus, a dwarf guide, leads Kate, Hamish, Michael and a group of dwarves to a cavern under the Dead City. They have to swim through a water-filled tunnel to get to the next section. A dwarf is drowned by an unknown monster while swimming. Another dwarf named Wallace saves Kate. They go through a passage and Kate unlocks a door that leads to a small room. The book sits on a pedestal. Kate picks it up and is transported to Dr. Pym’s study. A past version that isn’t aware of recent events. Kate sees her mother and is suddenly transported back to the cavern – without the book.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate, Michael and the dwarves swim back through the passage but are ambushed by Cavendish and the Screechers. They’re captured. Cavendish interrogates Kate. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma, Gabriel and some villagers break in and attack Cavendish’s office, where he is holding Kate. A battle ensues. Kate frees Michael. More battling. Kate and Michael free other prisoners. The siblings are reunited. Captain Robbie and his dwarf army show up. Dr. Pym appears and uses magic to cause an earthquake. Cavendish is captured.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma, Michael, Kate and Dr. Pym catch up. Kate faints and has a vision. Dr. Pym reveals information about the children’s parents. Their last name turns out to be Whibbley. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate makes secret plans to save the children from the Countess. She break Cavendish out of prison and forces him to take her to Cambridge Falls. Cavendish magics her to the boat where the Countess is. Dr Pym mist-walks Emma, Michael and himself to the lake’s shore. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Countess gets Kate to travel back in time to retrieve the book. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Emma and Gabriel go under the dam and find that the gas mine there is about to explode. The creature the Countess was keeping on the boat escape attacks Gabriel.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Michael and Dr Pym fight their way onto the Countess’s boat. Michael rescues the children. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kate is back in time. Dr Pym give her the Atlas. Her mother doesn’t recognise her. She returns and gives the book to the Countess who immediately betrays her. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Gabriel is fighting a winged creature by the dam. He gets injured. Michael rescues the children from the boat and rows to safety.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Countess collapses. She turns into a green-haired monster-man – possessed by the Dire Magician, it is revealed - and threatens Kate. It collapses again and turns back into the Countess.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
how did it end?</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The dam breaks. Kate, Dr Pym’s body and other children are on the boat. Emma and Young Abraham watch from the lake shore – obviously horrified. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Michael jumps off the catwalk circling the dam into the water. He lands in the boat.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Up on the shore, Young Abraham takes his last picture, to cement that event happening in all versions of the past, present and future. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">As the boat begins to fall off the waterfall, Kate shoves Abraham’s photo into the book. They are transported into the woods and the boat does not hit the water. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Gabriel remains missing, presumed dead, during all of this. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The siblings then place the photo of Kate (in Dr Pym’s orphanage in present day time) in the book and transport “home”. An old, wizened Countess ambushes Kate. Kate manages to harness her magical powers and transports the Countess and herself to Rhakotis. The Countess tells Kate that her parents are being held captive, that’s why they never return for them. Kate ignores her and returns to present day. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dr Pym hold a Christmas party and all the children they saved those fifteen year ago attend, all grown up. Gabriel makes an appearance and so does King Robbie and Wallace.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Screechers </i>– the children’s nickname for the ghoul-like creatures with yellow-slitted eyes – they are actually men who sold their souls for wealth and powers hundreds of years ago. The proper name for them is morum cadi, meaning deathless warriors. They feel no pain or remorse, and are tireless servants. Their screams have the power to cause confusion and mild paralysis. Ruled by the Countess who uses them as guards. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Books of Beginnings </i>– a set of books that hold the secret recordings of ancient magicians and their discoveries. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Wisewoman </i>– a woman that does magic. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Atlas or the Atlas of Time</i>– one of the Books of Beginnings. Contains maps of all pasts, presents and futures. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The Dead City or Calmartia</i> – the ancient dwarf capital hidden within the mountain. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Salmac-tar</i> – sightless, razor-clawed creatures found in the caves and tunnels within the mountain.</div>
<br />
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-59508118382851161012015-01-13T12:22:00.004-08:002015-01-14T00:21:53.092-08:00 Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> Steelheart<br />
<b>Author:</b> Brandon Sanderson<br />
<b>Series:</b> Reckoners #1<br />
- <i>Steelheart</i> (September 2013)<br />
- Firefight (January 2015)<br />
- Calamity (2016)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17727802-steelheart" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
summary </h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.<br />
<br />
Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.<br />
<br />
And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.<br />
<br />
He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.</div>
</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2>
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All his life since the Calamity, David's been dead-set on avenging his father's death at the hands of Steelheart. He manages to find the Reckoners while they're taking down a High Epic and helps them. They reluctantly take him in seeing all the work he's done on Epics. The Reckoners work together to take down a power plant, take Conflux hostage and draw Steelheart out by Prof disguising as an Epic calling himself Limelight. Megan dies during one of the take outs and the team leaves her behind. However she reincarnates as she's Firefight. On the day of the face off with Steelheart, after much fighting and gunfire, David manages find out Steelheart's weakness and kills him. Prof is actually a gifter Epic. Megan is disoriented after reincarnating and have lost chunks of her memories. David tries to take her with him but she refuses. Successful in their plan to kill Steelheart, the Reckoners leave Newcago.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In the prologue, David is at the bank with his father when an Epic by the name of Deathpoint (srsly) comes in and starts turning people to ash for fun. Steelheart arrives, stuff happens and David's father shoots Deathpoint wounding Steelheart's cheek in the process and he bleeds. In a fury, Steelheart kills David's father and burns the whole building down, but David manages to get away.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">And oh, he's the only one alive who knows that Steelheart can bleed.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">10 years later, David goes out at night to catch the Reckoners in action and join them. They're in Newcago to kill Fortuity. The whole plan is about fail when David interferes. They succeed in killing Fortuity and take David with them.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In the steel catacombs under Newcago, David informs Prof and the rest of the Reckoners that he has a decades worth of information on Epics back at his apartment. With the help of Megan and Cody, David succeeds in getting the information after taking out Enforcement soldiers and another Epic.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Back in the tunnels under Newcago, David convinces the Reckoners to go after the High Epics. They reluctantly agree to upend Enforcement by taking out Conflux and then going after Firefight, Nightwielder and Steelheart himself.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">And oh, since Steelheart's impossible to find, even in the palace, the plan is to lure Steelheart out by convincing him that there's a rival Epic in town.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">But not before they figure out what Steelheart's weakness is.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Oookay.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David starts training with a tensor and it's hard stuff, man.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Prof sends Abraham, Megan and David to Diamond, the weapons dealer, before Steelheart can get to him and buy all he shiny armaments first.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They come upon a gauss gun developed with the help of experimenting on Epics which can change the bullet into a charged explosive. They buy it despite the fact that it needs several thousand standard fuel cells of energy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In the middle of it all, David smells phosphorus which means that Nightwielder has arrived. In a panic, they hide out at the end of the corridor while Abraham makes their way out with the help of a tensor. When Nightwielder gets suspicious about there being someone, David ends up having to act as Diamond's assistant.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It's all very good thought, because David is a clever bastard as he manages to shine UV light onto Nightwielder for a split second using the UV fingerprint scanner while pretending to fiddle with it and then takes out the data chip.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David excuses himself to 'continue working on the inventory' and gets back to Megan and Abraham, where they find out that UV light does make Nightwielder corporeal.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Megan isn't impressed.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Abraham is.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David goes to see Prof in his sanctum at the steel catacombs to tell him about the discovery when Prof tells him that they need Epics on there side, not just simply kill them. And also that they'd imitate an Epic to draw Steelheart out. But people have to know that it was actually the work of Reckoners.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The realigned plan is to strike the power station with the gauss gun to make Steelheart think that a new rival has arrived.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The discovery about Nightwielder forces Prof to warn David not to be impulsive and endanger everyone around him in a haste.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Whoops.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A week after the visit to Diamond, the Reckoners are successful in bringing down one of the power plants of Newcago.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David improvised. Yet again.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They openly challenge Steelheart disguised as an Epic, named Limelight who can manipulate energy that's in the form of green sparks of light.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Five days after the attack, Tia's research on Steelheart's weakness leads the Reckoners to the bank room in perfect condition (as much perfect as it can be after ten years) underground. It's the toom where Steelheart killed David's father but they are, unfortunately, no closer to figuring out his weakness.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They take the unaffected gold they find in the bank vaults for trading purposes.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Also, David tells the crew about how Firefight doesn't really exist because his powers aren't about fire but that of creating illusions of Firefight while remaining anonymous himself.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">And oh, Steelheart has been looking for a group of rivals not Limelight so they Reckoners decide to take out Conflux next and throw the Enforcement into chaos.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">*rubs hands in glee*</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The plan is to hit Conflux at night while he's being transported but expecting an attack, the Enforcement is already prepared.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The plan goes awry when they seen it's a trap and they split.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Abraham manages to get away to the bolt-hole after getting hit.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Tia is safe in the hideout.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cody goes after the unguarded limo carrying Conflux but find a cuffed and gagged Epic inside the trunk instead. They decide to take him to the bolt-hole.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Megan is badly hit and barely alive when Prof rescues David and Megan wearing tensors.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He takes out armor units, stops bullets, and melts the ground with a wave of his hand. Wow, Prof.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Lastly, he tells the Enforcement solders that he's Limelight and is going to take away Newcago piece by piece if Steelheart doesn't appear soon.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Back at the hideout, Tia treats an injured Megan (since harmsway and tensors have never worked well on her) but is unable to save her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Megan dies.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">MEGAN IS DEAD AND DAVID CAN'T EVEN MOURN HER BECAUSE THEY NEED TO GET GOING.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">WHAT IS HAPPENING.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">In a haste, the Reckoners burn their hideout with Megan inside and arrives at the bolt-hole where Cody's holding Conflux captive.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They decide to deal with the Epic in the morning.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David cries himself to sleep.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">About 16 hours later in the blot-hole, Cody informs that Steelheart have left this message on hundreds of channels in his network: PICK A TIME AND LOCATION. I WILL COME.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The captive turns out to be a sixty years old Indian with the name of Edmund Sense aka Conflux.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A slave of Steelheart used only as a battery, Conflux isn't really in charge of Enforcement.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Well, sparks!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Prof asks him to draw his power back or die and he pretty much just shuts down Newcago.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Reckoners plan of action is to fight Steelheart in the Soldier Field in three days time.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Diamond's been in custody ever since David, Abraham and Megan visited him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David lines the roof of the field with explosives to help them when they face Steelheart.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">On the day of the face off, the plan starts unraveling at a rapid pace almost as if Steelheart and the Enforcement know their plan.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They know because Megan is Firefight with the power of reincarnation but using her power aggravates her and she forgets pieces of memory.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Inside the tunnels, David is being chased by Nightwielder and see glimpses of Megan. Not sure about who's who, David finally fires at Firefight and Nightwielder disguised as Firefight (aka Megan) and the real Nightwielder dies.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Megan is clearly disoriented about who David is exactly and runs away.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Prof is fighting off Steelheart with extreme proficiency. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David arrives on the field to shoot with the gun his father wounded Steelheart with.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cody gets badly injured.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Tia orders to abort the plan.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Abraham takes Cody to Tia waiting with in the getaway copter outside the stadium.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">David shoots Steelheart three times.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Nothing happens.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Prof hits Steelheart from the back which angers Steelheart and he punches Prof a few times.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Fearing that Prof is dead and he's next, David tells the team to leave.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The sun rises meaning Nightwielder really is dead.</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
<div>
As Steelheart raises his hand to kill David, David realizes that his father wasn't afraid of Steelheart and that's why he was able to wound Steelheart. And that, everyone, is his weakness. David puts the pen detonator, connected to the explosives beneath the field, inside the gun and raises it at Steelheart. Steelheart crushes David's hand, takes the gun and turns it on David. He pulls the trigger. Pulling the trigger makes the bullet strike the detonator trigger inside. Explosion unfolds and Steelheart dies in the process. Prof creates an energy shield to protect David and himself from the explosion. Prof's a gifter Epic. They hurry to get away before Enforcement can arrive. David goes back to find Megan who's playing David's profession of love over and over. David asks her to come with them, but she gets agitated and strange and intends to shoot him. David runs. The Reckoners leave Newcago in the copter with Steelheart's skull that has turned into steel.</div>
<div>
<br />
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dowser - A device for testing if someone is an Epic or not.<br />
Harmsway - A device that accelerates a body's healing abilities.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Imager - A 3-D imaging device that transmits anything that a basic spynet watches or listens to inside a room.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Prime invincibility - An Epic power that renders conventional methods of assassination useless such as regeneration, impervious skin, precognition, and self-reincarnation.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Tensors - Devices in the form of gloves that create vibrations to disrupt solid objects by turning them to dust.</div>
</div>
</div>
Sanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09297915931078500505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-2058701933324427632015-01-03T09:33:00.003-08:002015-01-03T09:33:27.060-08:00Red Rising by Pierce Brown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title: </b>Red Rising<br />
<b>Author: </b>Pierce Brown<br />
<b>Series: </b>Red Rising Trilogy #1<br />
- <i>Red Rising</i> (January 2014)<br />
- Golden Son (January 2015)<br />
- Morning Star (unknown)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.<br />
<br />
Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.<br />
<br />
Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
Darrow is a Red, a miner of the planet Mars. He is one of the pioneers, who are getting Mars ready for the rest of the human race's habitation. He and his wife are hanged for a small infraction. Except, Darrow does not die, but is drugged and saved. He is recruited by the Sons of Ares in a mission to topple the ruling Society of Mars, which has been lying to the Reds for generations. The whole Solar System has been habitable for centuries now. Darrow infiltrates the Institute, a school for young Golds, in disguise as a Gold. They are put through a series of brutal and cruel tests. Darrow wins, and takes up a position as the apprentice of the Arch Governor, the most powerful person in Mars.<br />
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>Darrow and the other Lambdas work hard to mine the most helium 3, so that they can win the Laurel, the box of luxurious imports from Earth that will help them feed their people better. They are confident that they will get it this time. But when they announce the winner, the Laurel goes to the Gammas.</li>
<li>Darrow's wife, Eo, takes him to a garden on the surface (which is forbidden to them) through a ventilation shaft in the Webbery, and they spend the night there. Eo urges Darrow to fight against the Society that rules over them, depriving them of life's little pleasures and keeping away from them what they deserve. </li>
<li>As they are returning they are caught by the Greys, and taken into custody. The punishment is forty eight lashes. After Darrow receives his lashes, it is Eo's turn, and after a few lashes from the belts, she begins to sing the forbidden song - one of death, and of things lost, and of rebellion. It means death to whoever sings it, and Eo is hanged by order of the Arch Governor. Just before she's hanged, she says something to her sister, Dio. </li>
<li>They are supposed to leave the hanged where they are until they are skeletons as a lesson to the others, but that night, Darrow sneaks out, cuts Eo down and buries her in the garden they spent they're last night together. On the way, he meets Uncle Narol who doesn't stop him, but gives him some of his wine.</li>
<li>The next morning, the Greys come for Darrow - to hang him for cutting down his wife's body. He is hanged in front of all the Reds.</li>
<li>But when he wakes up, he isn't on the Other Side, but buried under the Earth. As in, not dead. He digs his way out to find himself in an abandoned mine shaft.</li>
<li>Sometime later, a tumbler comes carrying people who drag him inside. Inside are two people of the Sons of Ares - Harmony and Ralph. They take him to Dancer, who helped save Darrow's life. The Sons of Ares know of him through his uncle, who is the one who drugged him and cut him down.</li>
<li>After giving Darrow a mental test, which he passes, Dancer takes Darrow to a viewing deck on the surface of the planet. Darrow sees a whole, well developed city with humans. Dancer tells him the true version of history. The Reds have been lied to all their lives. Mars, along with most of the Solar System has been terraformed and is inhabited. It has been for several centuries, since the Conquering. </li>
<li>Darrow agrees to fight for the Sons of Ares cause - to bring down the Society. He is taken to Mickey the Carver (an artist/morbid plastic surgeon), who, after months and months of surgery, therapy, and training transforms Darrow into a Gold - a highly superior race of human beings.</li>
<li>Darrow takes the Institute's admission test and aces it, getting only 1 question incorrect. It is the highest score ever received. The new students are taken to the Institute in Agea, Mars' capital, where they are divided into twelve Houses. Darrow is placed in House Mars.</li>
<li>The first test is The Passage, which is basically a culling - by death. The top half of students kill the bottom half in a one-to-one match to death. Darrow kills Julian, a sweet boy he befriended, who comes from the elite Bellona family. Julian's elder brother, Cassius, is also a fellow student.</li>
<li>The next set of tests takes place in a valley away from Agea, where the Houses are expected to make war with each other until one finally emerges as the victor. They are mostly left to fend for themselves, except when their house Proctor brings them any little provision. While the Proctors watch the game from a floating mountain, Olympus, it is also broadcast to the outsiders with a half-day delay for editing.</li>
<li>But before Mars begins to conquer other houses they need to establish unity within their own, which proves to be a losing battle. House Mars fragments into four tribes, headed by Darrow & Cassius, Titus, Antonia and Servo. </li>
<li>Titus's tribe engages with House Cerus, and captures slaves, whom they severely torture and abuse. After a month of this, Darrow hatches a plan to put to stop to Titus' brutality. </li>
<li>He and Cassius travel far east, where they have an encounter with House Minerva, and use them to hit at Titus, and then drive them away before they can conquer their house. After, although their house is together again, there is still the matter of Titus' crimes. </li>
<li>When Darrow goes to interrogate him, Titus slips up and Darrow discovers that he is a Red under disguise as a Gold, just like him. Darrow knows that Titus is a threat to him and any other Reds who may be disguised like them. His poor control could expose them all anytime. He orders his execution. Cassius requests the right to kill Titus as he believes it is he who killed his brother. But Titus' death does not lift the morale of House Mars, but only results in an uneasy alliance between the tribes.</li>
<li>In order to defeat House Minerva, House Red allies with House Diana. However, once Minerva is captured, Diana turns on Mars. House Mars waits them out and defeat them. House Minerva's Primus, Virginia, is the only one who escapes with their house's standard. </li>
<li>The Jackal, the Arch Governor's son, wants Darrow's head. He sends Cassius a 'gift' to tempt him to give Darrow up. In the meantime, Roque, Darrow & Cassius' close friend if captured by some dissenters. He is most likely dead.</li>
<li>Everyone expects Darrow to get the Primus title for all his victories. However, Cassius finds out from the Jackal's gift that it is Darrow who killed his brother. He draws him out of Castle Mars and in the ensuing duel, Darrow is speared in the belly and left in the snow to die. </li>
<li>Virginia saves his life. They grow close. Virginia shares with Darrow her novel approach to leadership, which involves the whole group working together as a whole, rather than a meritocracy. </li>
<li>Soon after, Virginia grows sick. Fitchner, House Mars' Proctor, gives Darrow some medicine for her. He also tells him of a conspiracy that most of the Proctors are in on - the Jackal must win this year. And Darrow is the only real threat to him. The Proctors of House Apollo and Jupiter especially, will so anything to eliminate Darrow.</li>
<li>Darrow decides to bring down Houses and Apollo and Jupiter first, as if every student of a house is defeated, it's Proctor will have to leave Olympus and the game. But before he can go after them, he needs an army. Darrow gathers an army of Oathbreakers and freed Minerva soldiers by storming Castle Mars. Then he marches on House Ceres with his troop. He wins. </li>
<li>That night, Tactus of House Diana attempts to rape a Ceres slave, Nyla. Darrow knows he cant do the same thing he did with Titus, as that created more enmity. So he gives Tactus twenty lashes, and then asks him to whip him back, as he is responsible for whatever his army does. Their sins are his sins. This earns Darrow his army's undying loyalty.</li>
<li>Darrow reveals the conspiracy of the game to his lieutenants. They go after House Apollo. Their Proctor makes an attempt on Darrow's life, but fails, as Servo, Darrow's old friend, comes to his rescue. Servo and his Howlers join Darrow's army. </li>
<li>Apollo then comes down to threaten Darrow and his lieutenants, but they don't budge, and threaten to expose him. In the time that Apollo and his cronies spent threatening them, Servo runs to Castle Apollo and starts the assault, along with Tactus.</li>
<li>Soon after House Apollo is captured, Fitchner comes to speak with Darrow. He reveals that Apollo hasn't left Olympus despite his house losing. He also warns him that Virginia is a trap, and urges Darrow to leave the Jackal alone. Darrow finds out that Servo is Fitchner's son.</li>
<li>They find out that House Juno has already been conquered by House Jupiter. That night, they march on House Jupiter, and lay siege to the castle. Their army is away fighting Mars with just a few defenders left behind. Three weeks into the siege, a boy named Lucian comes out to say House Jupiter surrenders.</li>
<li>Once they gain entry to the castle, Darrow tricks Lucian and exposes him as the Jackal, of Pluto. He traps him by sticking a blade through his hand and pinning him to a table. While he questions him, he gives him a knife and tells the Jackal that he is free to go if he can cut himself free.</li>
<li>The Jackal cuts his own hand to free himself. In the ensuing chaos, the Proctors come to his aid. They throw him a sonic bomb that he detonates. He then goes after Darrow with the knife, but Pax, one of Darrow's trusted soldiers throws himself in front of Darrow, and sacrifices his life. Darrow and the Howlers go after the Jackal.</li>
<li>While one Proctor Venus is assisting the Jackal to flee, Proctor Apollo halts their pursue, and tells them that he has taken Virginia. He warns them to leave the Jackal alone for now, and loose in their next encounter, if they want to see her again. </li>
<li>Darrow becomes wild, and kills Apollo. He then takes his weapons, armour and Gravboots for himself and his army. Darrow and the Howlers fly up to Olympus and lay siege to it. They neutralize all the Proctors they find. Servo is sent to bring in the rest of their army. </li>
<li>They find Virginia, and Darrow sends her with half his army to capture the Jackal, who should be easy to defeat now that all his help is gone.</li>
<li>He sends Servo to edit the recordings of the recent incidents in the game, and goes to question Fitchner. Fitchner reveals that Virginia is the Jackal's twin sister, and has most likely gone to help him.</li>
<li>Darrow knows he has to replenish the numbers of his army before the Augustus twins come. He goes after his own house. He finds that House Mars has fallen into chaos and severely poor conditions. He frees all the slaves, and his house members are overjoyed to see him, as they know the truth of what Cassius did. Roque lives, and embraces him as a brother. </li>
<li>Cassius is the only one who does not come out to see Darrow. He is now Primus. Darrow goes to see him in the war room. Cassius concedes Darrow's right to be Primus, but declares a blood feud against him for killing Julian, and promises that the next time they see each other, only one will leave with his life.</li>
<li>Darrow takes his army to the Jackal. He sends Milia and a few other of his lieutenants in front to scout. Virginia comes back along with Milia. She has the Jackal - Adrius au Augustus with her, and presents him to Darrow, bound and gagged.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
Arch Governor Augustus, Imperators Bellona and Adriatus and a host of other dignitaries arrive in a flurry. Darrow, as the undisputed champion is given a pin. And then they are dispersed. Several of the personalities are waiting to offer Darrow an apprentice, but the Arch Governor approaches him first. In return for Darrow's silence about the corruption in the game, he offers Darrow an apprentice and promises him the best connections, riches, a place in his house; pretty much anything he asks for. Darrow assures him that neither he nor his friends have plans of revealing that Adrius had help from his father (he knows the value of having a powerful personality in his debt). He accepts his offer to be his apprentice, and swears his fealty to him.<br />
<h2>
anything else</h2>
The Conquering: The Golds were at first humans who were sent to Luna (the moon) 700 years ago. Reds were sent to Mars to mine for fuel - Helium 3, which was used to terraform the rest of the Solar System. The Golds of Luna rebelled against Earth, which they felt was just a drain on their resources. They decided to leave the Reds under Mar's surface to continue mining. Since then, the Society has been in power, and slowly, have terraformed and expanded to the rest of the Solar System.<br />
The Society: consists of the elite Golds who rule the Solar System. Includes the Sovereign Consul, Octavia au Lune, the Arch Governor, Imperators, and other Peerless Scarred<br />
Imperator: A commander of a fleet<br />
Praetor: A commander of a squadron within a fleet<br />
Governors: the rulers of the thousand cities on Mars<br />
Arch Governor: the one who presides over all the other Governors; the most powerful man on Mars<br />
Sons of Ares: projected as terrorists by the Society, but in truth are a super secret rebel group working to bring down the Society<br />
Agea: the capital city of Mars<br />
Gold: a superior race of humans who rule the Solar System, marked by their Sigil - two golden wings<br />
Grays: the garrison troops who enforce the law, and ensure obedience to the hierarchy<br />
Whites: philosophers, and those who arbitrate justice<br />
Silver: those who manipulate currency and logistics<br />
Obsidians: elite soldiers - monstrously sized men and women bred solely for the purpose of being warriors<br />
Pink: pleasure givers<br />
Greens: technology developers<br />
Blues: those who navigate the stars<br />
Coppers: those who run the beaurocracy<br />
Yellows: those who study science and medicine<br />
Reds: the lowest order of the Colors, which consists of miners and other menial workers<br />
High Reds: maintenance workers, sanitation workers, grain harvesters, assembly workers, etc.<br />
Low Reds: miners living below Mar's surface<br />
Laurel: a prize for the most result-producing clan of the 24 clans in the mining colony of Lykos, which includes several luxuries like medicines and sufficient food<br />
Lambda: one of the clans of Lykos (Darrow's clan)<br />
Gamma: one of the clans of Lykos<br />
Webbery: a huge nest of webs, basically, where bioSilk is harvested<br />
Institute: A school for Golds, the future rulers of the galaxy<br />
Houses: the students of the Institute are divided into 12 houses loosely based on personality traits, and named for the gods of the Roman pantheon<br />
Primus: the head of a House. A position earned by getting five bars, each a bounty for an act of merit<br />
Proctor: Peerless Scarred chosen by the Arch Governor for each house, to teach and represent the students of the House within the Institute<br />
Olympus: an artificial floating mountain where the Proctors watch each year's class<br />
Peerless Scarred: top graduates of the Institute who have surpassed all the tests set by the Institute; the ones who can ascend in society<br />
Graduates: also top graduates of the Institute, but their prospects are relatively limited, and they must earn their scars<br />
Shamed: the poorest performing graduates of the Institutes, those who have disobeyed express orders when Slaves<br />
Slave: members of other houses who have been captured. A slave is made when the standard of the captor's House is pressed against the forehead of the captive. Pressing the standard against the slave's forehead a second time would free him.<br />
Oathbreaker: the Shamed who have broken their vows after being enslaved<br />
Howlers: Servo's band of fighters, characterized by the small stature and wicked disposition<br />
Gravboots: Boots that allow the wearer to float</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869905647422999446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-29668932029980184202015-01-02T04:41:00.001-08:002015-01-02T04:41:42.116-08:00The 100 by Kass Morgan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlBrrse1hTRojHn8eOXBhrpXjTTpkyOmN3DSiWJunCKS3lzwqc42AaEwj5VxdzPeui0HI3aoQvbqunlFaUXsSTn0uB7VcS3ZYZY7vTCnqV9eCo0ux4NpU4ts3auKyb8jRIjbJJzkHzog/s1600/the+100+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxlBrrse1hTRojHn8eOXBhrpXjTTpkyOmN3DSiWJunCKS3lzwqc42AaEwj5VxdzPeui0HI3aoQvbqunlFaUXsSTn0uB7VcS3ZYZY7vTCnqV9eCo0ux4NpU4ts3auKyb8jRIjbJJzkHzog/s1600/the+100+cover.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>The 100</div>
<div>
<b>Author: </b>Kass Morgan</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>The Hundred #1</div>
<div>
- The 100 (January 2013)</div>
<div>
- Day 21 (September 2014)</div>
<div>
- Homecoming (February 2015)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19161855-the-100">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
Summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents -- considered expendable by society -- are being sent on a dangerous mission: to recolonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's son, came to Earth for the girl he loves -- but will she ever forgive him? Reckless BELLAMY fought his way onto the transport pod to protect his sister, the other half of the only pair of siblings in the universe. And GLASS managed to escape back onto the ship, only to find that life there is just as dangerous as she feared it would be on Earth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Confronted with a savage land and haunted by secrets from their pasts, the hundred must fight to survive. They were never meant to be heroes, but they may be mankind's last hope.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This recap was written by Terri @ <a href="http://starlightbookreviews.com/">Starlight Book Reviews</a> because a) she thought it would be fun and b) The 100 is the best show on TV right now and you should watch it.</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2 style="text-align: left;">
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Humans have fled the Earth because of nuclear war and radiation and are now living in three interconnected space stations. On the space station, anyone convicted of even minor crimes is executed, but minors are put into Confinement (space jail) until their 18th birthday, when they get a trial. At the start of the story, 100 juvenile delinquents are sent back to Earth to see if the radiation has abated enough that humans can live again. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The story is told through four points of view: Clarke, Bellamy, Wells and Glass. The first three are on the ground, while Glass escaped from the dropship and stayed on the space station, and there are lots of flashbacks that inform the back story.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 1: Clarke's medical internship advisor tells her she's going to Earth and puts a bracelet on her to track her vitals. (That actually was a fact which I wish they'd included in the show because Clarke does so much more patching up in the show, but unless I missed something, she has no actual training. "My mom is a doctor" doesn't mean she knows how to do surgery or the symptoms for internal bleeding.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 2: Wells gets himself arrested for setting fire to the tree and recounts how he became friends with Clarke in the "pre-Cataclysm library" where they keep all the real books. A virus wiped out their digital archive so I guess no one reads much on the space station.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 3: Bellamy knocks out a guard and steals his uniform, but can't get on the dropship. He ends up rushing Chancellor Jaha and demanding to be put on the dropship or else he shoots.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 4: In the resulting scuffle, the gun goes off accidentally and Jaha is wounded. Glass escapes from the dropship during the confusion goes to find her ex-boyfriend Luke. Luke is now dating Camille and didn't even know Glass had been confined, just that she broke up with him and never contacted him again.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 6: Clarke's bestie from space jail, Thalia, is on the dropship. They land on Earth, but the landing is rough and there are injuries. Thalia is badly hurt and bleeding. In a flashback, Clarke finds her parents lab full of sick and dying children, and befriends one named Lilly. She realizes they're experimenting on them.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 7: Wells and a jerk named Graham butt heads. Graham is like the Murphy of the book. The kids think Jaha sent Wells there as a spy and don't like him "bossing them around" with his practical suggestions of going to look for water. Clarke gives Wells the cold-shoulder.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 8: Bellamy flashes back to buying rations for his mother as a 6-year-old. He returns to find her "sick" - ie in labor. Present day Octavia has a sprained ankle from the crash and Clarke has patched her up. Bellarke share a moment and it's adorable.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 8: Glass stays over at Luke’s and he takes her to an old workshop to cut off her prison bracelet. Glass goes home to her mother, who tells her that Jaha is on life support and Rhodes “can be convinced” to pardon her and leaves to talk to him. (Translation for the adult reader: she slept with him in order to ensure that they don't kill her daughter. Glass is oblivious to this, which annoyed me because it was SO OBVIOUS GLASS.) Glass is supposed to be an example of how space jail can straighten out bad behavior and proof that the justice system works, which people are doubting because they’ve been killing all the teens when they come up for trial.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 9: Clarke checks on Thalia and she’s getting an infection. They haven’t found the medicine chest yet and think it must have gotten lost in the wreckage in the landing. Clarke and Wells argue. Clarke had told him about what was going on in her parents' lab and sworn him to secrecy so they don't get executed. Wells was trying to make the experiments stop and told Jaha about them to help Clarke. Instead, it got her parents executed and she’s ticked. In a flashback, Clarke confronts her parents. They reveal that Vice-Chancellor Rhodes is forcing them to study the effects of radiation on human test subjects, and he's threatened to kill Clarke if they refuse. (Also, she and Wells officially dated on the space station, unlike the friendship and unrequited love thing they had on the show.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 10: Graham has taken over the supplies and is abusing his power in camp, naturally. Bellamy finds a bow and arrow and decides to go all woodsy. He apparently studied on the space station and can identity tracks. Graham makes a disgusting comment about Bellamy and Octavia and Bellamy tries to beat him up, but Graham is stronger and Wells has to rescue him. (It's okay, y'all, TV Bellamy would have destroyed him.) In a flashback, Bellamy reveals that they hid Octavia in the closet during inspections.)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 11: Glass goes shopping with her horrible friends and finds the locket that Luke gave her before she got thrown into space jail. Luke happens across her and sees what she’s looking at. She won’t tell him why she got confined.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 12: Bellamy fetches Octavia to go hunting with him and invites Clarke to go search wreckage with him the next afternoon. Thalia defends Wells and tells Clarke she needs to forgive him and be happy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 13: Bellamy returns with a two-headed deer. Wells has a flashback thinking about his mom dying on the space station and sitting with Clarke. Octavia giggles at Wells. They see glowing butterflies and Wells determines to make Clarke fall in love with him again.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 14: Bellamy wants to take Octavia and leave camp, away from the rules and the other people and the possibility of getting killed when the adults come to ground. He goes swimming in the river shirtless and Clarke finds him. There’s adorable flirting. Bellamy reveals that he studied a lot about Earth and survival skills so that he’d know how to keep Octavia safe.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 15: Bellarke have adorable woodsy-bonding time. Bellamy gallantly points out that he and Wells are the only ones who came to Earth by choice and maybe whatever unforgivable thing he did could be forgiven after all. They find the medicine chest and joyfully make out in celebration.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 16: Luke has solved the mystery. In a flash back, Glass reveals that she’d gotten pregnant and didn’t tell Luke to spare him from space jail. The nurse told her the baby died. Luke breaks up with Camille and he and Glass kiss again because love.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 17: Octavia flirts yet more with Wells, and I guess if we’re not going to have Lincoln, I’d be okay with this. In flashback, Wells remembers Clarke telling him that the unregistered children whose parents violated the population law are being experimented on. She makes him promise not to tell but she’s upset and crying. Book Octavia is only 14 so probably we won’t get Lincoln. They see Bellarke kissing and Wells has a sad.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 18: Clarke gives Thalia some medicine and puts the chest away until she can find a safe place for it. Octavia asks about the medicine chest and when Clarke wakes up the next morning, O and the medicine are gone. Clarke asks Bellamy where she is and then accuses (with very little proof) Octavia of taking it. Bellamy calls her a snooty ***** and storms off. Clarke runs away and cries. In FB, Lilly asks Clarke to mercy-kill her. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 19: Cranky Bellamy finds Graham interrogating his tearful sister. Wells prevents him from rescuing her because he wants answers. The compromise is to keep Octavia in the infirmary tent with Clarke. In FB, Bellamy’s mom is going crazy. She says to herself "you can't have both" and then tells him that he can't have a mother AND a sister.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 20: Glass’ mom doesn’t want her to be with Luke because he's from one of the poor stations (Walden) and also because he knocked her up. In FB, Luke’s roommate Carter grabs Glass and accuses her of just slumming it with Luke to be dangerous, because Carter is a douche. Luke comes home just in time but Glass doesn't say anything. In order to protect Luke, Glass breaks up with him and says she was just having fun, it was never real, blah blah lies blah blah. He doesn’t believe her but she leaves.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 21: Thalia is getting worse and Clarke goes to look for medicinal plants despite not really knowing anything about them. Wells tries to follow. Clarke enters a building filled with skeletons and the floor gives out. She thinks of Wells as she falls.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 22: Wells grabs her just in time. She latches onto him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 23: In FB, Bellamy finds his mother trying to strangle Octavia and rescues her. In the real, he finds her hair ribbon tied around a tree branch and finds all the meds stashed. He confronts her and she reveals she didn’t get confined for stealing food for bullied foster kids like he thought. She developed a pill addiction in the system and can’t sleep without them. She tells him she just needs to detox and Bellamy makes her promise to tell Clarke. It starts to thunder and rain and the kids freak out which LOLOLOLOL space babies.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 24: Luke is on a maintenance spacewalk. He tells Glass there was an oxygen leak. In FB, Glass gets a note from her bestie Wells asking where she's been lately and guards burst in to arrest her for being illegally pregnant.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 25: Clarke and Wells are sitting together and Bellamy is jealous. Octavia confesses her theft to the group and the teens want to kill her because harsh justice is all they have ever known. Wells recommends banishment for them both. METHINKS ULTERIOR MOTIVES ARE A FACTOR. Bellamy apologizes to wells for shooting Jaha. They shake.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 26: Thalia gets better and tells Clarke to go after Wells and forgive.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 27: Wells gives Clarke a flower. He kisses her and she kisses him back (BOO HISS). In FB, Wells sees her parents’ trial. Rhodes lies about the human experimentation and the Council votes to kill her parents. Clarke freaks out in the trial and Rhodes mentions that since she scanned into the lab multiple times, she’s complicit. That's why Clarke got thrown into space jail.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 28: Glass slips down to the comet viewing party on Walden station to meet Luke. He gives her the locket, effectively proposing and she accepts.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 29: Bellamy remembers there’s a comet passing and goes off into the woods to find a place to watch it. When it’s gone, he goes back to camp and finds it on fire. Octavia is gone. In FB, Bellamy comes home and his mother has tried to kill herself with a knife. Octavia is hiding in the closet unharmed and they listen to their mom's dying breaths.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 30: Wells won’t let Clarke run into the burning infirmary tent to save Thalia. Clarke, grief-stricken, storms away from him with angry words. In FB, before the trial, Clarke mercy-kills Lilly with a vial of drugs that stops her heart.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 31: The partition between Walden and Phoenix locks dramatically between Luke and Glass. Glass’ mom says the space station is in trouble - it wasn't meant to last this long and they have to preserve oxygen for the wealthy people on Phoenix station. The Council will let Walden and Arcadia stations suffocate. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 32: In FB, Wells argues with Jaha about Clarke and Rhodes. He eavesdrops on a convo between Jaha and Rhodes saying the dropships are ready. Rhodes wants to send them to Earth to see if it’s safe because the teens are expendable. Jaha wants to wait and see if they’re pardoned at their 18th birthday trials. Rhodes scoffs that no one is pardoned anymore because they don’t have the resources - confirming the corruption. Wells decides to get himself arrested so he can go to Earth with Clarke to protect her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 33: Bellamy still can’t find Octavia and Clarke is sad because of Thalia. They hug. Clarke found O’s ribbon and thinks she may have left camp before the fire started. Bellamy flirts just a little bit. Clarke flat out says that she and Wells are done (YAY BELLARKE).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 34: Glass sneaks through an air duct to Walden, which seems like it might be a problem with the whole “seal off the other stations so the oxygen doesn’t get out” deal if the AIR DUCTS aren’t locked up. She tells Luke she’d rather die on Walden with him than live without him. He is oddly fine with this plan and argues with her for exactly one sentence. In FB, Jaha interrogates Glass about the baby's father because he’s complicit in the illegal pregnancy. She names Carter to protect Luke. Camille shows up to ruin everything and tell that secret because Camille sucks.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 35: Bellarke see signs of a struggle in the forest and determine that Octavia may have been abducted. They find an orchard of evenly spaced, fruit-bearing apple trees and start to wonder if maybe everyone on Earth isn’t dead after all.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Ch 36: Wells is orchestrating the construction of a wooden shelter instead of tents. (They’ll both still BURN, but okay.) In FB, Wells reveals that he compromised the airlock on the ship hoping to speed up the mass evacuation to Earth. In present day, a shadowy line of people shoots a boy in the camp and the kids realize that Earth isn’t dead after all. DUN DUN DUUUUN.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
differences to the show</h2>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- No Finn, no Raven. Meh on Finn, but Raven was a totally awesome and worthy addition to the show.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Most of the side characters are gone, like Monty and Jasper, or at least they weren't mentioned by name in book 1, so at this point all we know is that they're not part of the book plot.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Book Bellamy is softer. He regrets shooting Jaha (accidentally), he’s flirty with Clarke and gentle as opposing to domineering with Octavia, though that seems more legit because she's only 14 in the book. He doesn't have girls in and out of his tent and doesn’t try to take charge in camp like AT ALL. There is no bracelet burning.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
- Book Clarke has more medical training but ironically does less actual patching up, because they haven't discovered any enemies yet so no one is getting stabbed.</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-88630448591747041162015-01-02T04:32:00.001-08:002015-01-02T04:32:16.597-08:00Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKzo7Vn7URrsnP5KVOEEITh-GTuZ0h6d_A9CHY_a_j2RMoUJAY30zeA-Hx-Ym2VoNyXnfi-Pt96SzPoZKok4zwfP6O0k839b5UzrltQtZbGtFtNezz_s5SUFhSoZ21fQe5-krYUxaS24/s1600/falling+kingdoms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEKzo7Vn7URrsnP5KVOEEITh-GTuZ0h6d_A9CHY_a_j2RMoUJAY30zeA-Hx-Ym2VoNyXnfi-Pt96SzPoZKok4zwfP6O0k839b5UzrltQtZbGtFtNezz_s5SUFhSoZ21fQe5-krYUxaS24/s1600/falling+kingdoms.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title:</b> Falling Kingdoms</div>
<div>
<b>Author:</b> Morgan Rhodes</div>
<div>
<b>Series: </b>Falling Kingdoms #1</div>
<div>
- Falling Kingdoms (December 2012)</div>
<div>
- Rebel Spring (December 2013)</div>
<div>
- Gathering Darkness (December 2014)</div>
<div>
- Untitled (2015)</div>
<div>
- Untitled (2016)</div>
<div>
- Untitled (2017)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12954620-falling-kingdoms?ac=1">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
This recap was written and submitted by <a href="http://iteachya.blogspot.com/">Katie Fatiga</a>, who is a true star.</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2 style="text-align: left;">
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On a fateful trip to the neighboring country of Paelsia, Princess Cleiona and her friends set in motion a series of events that will irrevocably change her life and the fate of her nation’s forever. A wine merchant’s son is murdered in front of her eyes at the hands of her “friend” and suitor, Aron. The party returns to their castle in Aurania but not before word of this horrible event spreads throughout the three neighboring kingdoms. King Gaius of Limeros and Chief Basilius of Paelsia for an evil alliance under the guise of retribution for the slain son of the wine seller. They wish to take over Auranos for themselves. Cleiona travels back to Paelsia in search of magic seeds said to cure the deathly ill (her sister, Emilia is bound to die without their aid). She is captured and held as a prisoner of war. After escaping, Cleo’s beloved guard, Theon, is killed by the prince of Limeros, Magnus, but Clea manages to escape. The war arrives at the gates of Auranos. The castle wall is eventually breached but only after King Gaius employs his secret weapon, his daughter, princess Lucia is a powerful sorceress. The book concludes with King Gaius of Limeros seizing the kingdom of Auranos, killing the Paelsian chief, and capturing Cleo, the only living descendant of the Auranian family line.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Princess Cleiona is a sassy, brave young princess who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time when her “friend” Aron lets his temper and pride get the best of him, resulting in the death of a poor wine merchant’s son.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Magnus is the heir to the Limeran throne. Much maligned and ignored by his father, the King of Blood, Magnus spends his days training, reading and secretly pining for his sister Lucia. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Lucia is a princess, but not by blood. She was stolen from her cradle by a pair of witches who sought to raise the child whom they believed would be the most powerful sorceress the 3 kingdoms have ever known. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Jonas is the brother of Tomas, the young man murdered by Lord Aron on that fateful afternoon in Paelsia. He seeks revenge and possibly a revolution that will change the lives of his impoverished countrymen forever. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cleo manages to escape her guards with the help of her best friend Nic. She plans to travel back to Paelsia in search of grape seeds infused with Earth Magic. She hopes that the stories are true and that these seeds will save her sister Emilia who is gravely ill with a mysterious disease.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">While in Paelsia, Cleo & Nic are taken in by an elderly merchant woman. She beds them for the night and tells them a magical story of the first Watchers of the land. Apparently, a long long time ago, a Watcher named Eva fell in love with a lowly human hunter. She was the most powerful of all the Watchers (sorcerers who live in an alternative realm known as the Sanctuary). She bore his child, but her elder sisters were jealous and they threatened the child’s life if Eva did not bring the Kindred (4 magical stones). Eva brought the Kindred to her sisters within the mortal realm but the sisters could never return to their home in the Sanctuary for which they were extremely angered leading to the death of Eva. The sisters ended up turning on each other as well but the hunter was there to pick up the pieces of the Kindred and hide them so not to corrupt anyone else. They have been missing ever since. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">This story renews Cleo’s hope in magic and salvation for her sister.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, word travels that the beautiful princess is staying in Paelsia and Jonas goes to check for himself. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Lucia’s powers are growing. She wants to hide them away because she is fearful that her father or someone else will punish her for being labeled a witch. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eventually she tells her brother Magnus and the two practice in secret. This secret last for all of a hot second because both Magnus’ father and his mistress, Sabina have been patiently waiting for 16 years for Lucia’s powers to show. Sabina corners Magnus, promising him sexy times if he will rat out his sister. Magnus refuses, but Lucia walks in on this awkward moment and reveals her powers, burning Sabina to a crisp.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">King Gaius is thrilled with his daughter’s new powers. He plans on using them to his advantage when he storms the Auranian castle. He has made a blood pact with the Chief of Paelsia, Basilias. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Back in Paelsia, Jonas kidnaps Cleo and imprisons her in his sister’s shed. Cleo eventually escapes with the help of her trusty (and hunky) guard, Theon. She, Nic and Theon head back toward the docks and Auranos. But just as she and Theon are expressing their hidden love for each other, Prince Magnus shows up to take Cleo back to Limeros for ransom. Theon manages to kill two of the Limeran guards but is mortally stabbed in the back by Magnus, much to Cleo’s horror. Cleo narrowly escapes Magnus’ grasp with the help of Nic and returns to Auranos heartbroken. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Magnus returns to Limeros, tale between his legs, fully expecting the wrath of his father. But his father is so consumed with the upcoming war and the newly formed powers of his daughter that he barely remarks on Magnus’ failings. Magnus is comforted in his self-loathing by his sister Lucia. He takes this intimate moment to finally tell Lucia how he feels about her. Lucia does NOT reciprocate his feelings even though Magnus attempts to convince her it isn’t wrong since they are not actually blood related. She runs from the room totally creeped out and Magnus continues his pitty party.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cleo’s return to Auranos is met with vague anger from her father who is still very concerned for her well being but loves her none the less. Emilia is still in grave danger of succumbing to her illness but the two sisters still share some touching bonding moments together.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Limeran and Paelsian forces march on Auranos. Jonas is among the troops but he has begun to question the motives of King Gaius of Limeros as well as the aloof Chief Basilius. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The battle is ferocious. Hundreds perish. Magnus is gravely injured but healed with the Earth Magic his sister Lucia possesses. It is also with Lucia’s precious magic that the forces are able to blast through the enchanted gates of Auranos and seize the castle.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">During the battle, Emilia succumbs to her illness. Cleo attempts to save her using the magic seeds gifted to her by the merchant woman of Paelsia (secretly an exiled Watcher), but it is too late. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">When the palace walls are breached, Cleo and Nic run to find his sister Mira, they run into Prince Magnus who again fails to capture Cleo (she runs). Cleo finds her father who gifts Cleo with a special ring (Eva the Watcher’s ring. Cleo is a descendant of the hunter, and the ring should give her power to hold the Kindred without being overwhelmed with its powers). King Corvin then dies in Cleo’s arms.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once the palace walls are breached, the Auranian forces are overwhelmed and must surrender. King Gaius and Chief Basilias discuss splitting the land 50/50 but King Gaius has different plans. He slits the Chief’s throat. The Limeran king moves into the palace with his family. Lucia has still not awoken from the coma she was put in after using such great force in opening the palace gate. Cleo somehow escaped the palace but waits outside in secret with the masses to hear King Gaius address his new people. She is given a cryptic message from Jonas telling her to be prepared for a rebellion and is unfortunately finally captured by Prince Magnus.</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Watchers = powerful sorcerers who live in an alternate realm called the Sanctuary, can travel between worlds in the form of a hawk</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Kindred = 4 elemental stones which hold the magic of 4 realms (water, earth, fire, air), lost for ages</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-34303227049996585412015-01-02T04:24:00.000-08:002015-01-02T04:24:17.965-08:00Storm Born by Richelle Mead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yMsHuyWQv6wulvnVD1t1Ei8-BFnH8ZQY-vJOhsV_hO1VAEYZoctdrTfy_t7SOOXTRatMpqMN9IO2l2nAKU18RoQ3FWsa6_M7xjI0y5qqaIxDdF4IgbUEJQE7ZVjhF2G6GWSudh4aaDI/s1600/storm+born.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5yMsHuyWQv6wulvnVD1t1Ei8-BFnH8ZQY-vJOhsV_hO1VAEYZoctdrTfy_t7SOOXTRatMpqMN9IO2l2nAKU18RoQ3FWsa6_M7xjI0y5qqaIxDdF4IgbUEJQE7ZVjhF2G6GWSudh4aaDI/s1600/storm+born.jpg" height="320" width="190" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> Storm Born<br />
<b>Author: </b>Richelle Mead<br />
<b>Series:</b> Dark Swan #1<br />
- Storm Born (January 2008)<br />
- Thorn Queen (July 2008)<br />
- Iron Crowned (January 2011)<br />
- Shadow Heir (February 2012)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3128414-storm-born">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl's got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy--one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie's first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne'er-do-well, and the ones who don't want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her...</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2>
In Short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Eugenie is a shaman who turns out to be the Storm King's daughter. Her future son is prophesised to take over the worlds and basically be a mighty ruler. So all the gentry want to have a child with her. Eugenie goes to the Otherworld to save a girl called Jasmine from a gentry king, meeting a kitsune called Kiyo (boo) and another king called Dorian (yay) along the way. Eugenie kills the horrible kidnapping king Aeson and gets his kingdom, becoming the Thorn Queen. She also finds out that Jasmine is her younger sister and could also easily fulfill the prophecy.</div>
<br />
<h2>
What Went Down</h2>
<br />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">We're introduced to Eugenie as she is trying to get rid of a spirit. She accomplishes her goal, of course, and then calls her assistant, Lara. Lara tells Eugenie that some guy called Will says his sister was abducted by something supernatural.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie goes to Wil's house and he's hella paranoid. Wil tells her that his sister has been taken to the Otherworld and is being held by King Aeson. Eugenie considers going to save Wil's sister, but first she goes to her stepfather, Roland, for advice.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie goes to a bar and meets a veterinarian called Kiyo and they have sex. An elemental rudely interrupts them and Kiyo isn't even surprised. They both fight it off. Eugenie wants to know what Kiyo's game is, and since he won't tell her she tells him to get out. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie decides to go after Wil's sister, Jasmine. She goes to tell Roland and they also notice that the scratches that Eugenie got during the sex encounter won't go away. Roland wants to go to the Otherworld with her but Eugenie (and her mom) won't let him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie asks her pet spirit, Volusian, about King Aesion and the Otherworld. He tells her that he's the very powerful king of Alder Land. He also suggests that she goes to the king of Oak Land, Dorian (squee), for help. Eugenie calls upon her other two pet spirits, Nandi and Finn, to ask for their opinion on what Volusian told her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Together, Eugenie and Wil cross over to the Otherworld. Wil goes over as a spirit because he's not powerful enough to take a proper human form there. Eugenie's pet spirits are all waiting for her and they start to take her to Alder Land to confront King Aeson. Along the way, Eugenie thinks she sees a fox.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">While in Oak Land (they had to cross through to get to Alder Land) they come across a patrol of Dorian's. Rurik, one of the disgusting patrolmen, says some gross things. They take her to Dorian. He's rather swoon-worthy and snarky with her, and obviously likes her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They finally get to talk in private and Dorian tells Eugenie a story about the Storm King, who could control storms and the weather and therefore the elements. Dorian tells her that he himself can control minerals and such that come from the earth. It doesn't sound too impressive until he mentions he can bring down buildings in seconds. Dorian says that Roland took out the Storm King because he wanted to take over the human world.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dorian looks at Eugenie's scratches and tells her that she's been marked. This means that Kiyo can track her. Then Eugenie and her crew set off with a guy called Gawyn, who tells her that he's a fan of her father. Eugenie assumes he means Roland.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They finally reach Alder Land and meet with King Aeson. It turns out that Wil delivered Eugenie to Aeson in exchange for his sister. Aeson implies that the Storm King was Eugenie's father, which explains a lot. Kiyo, in fox form, attacks Aeson.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie and Wil escape back to the human world. She tells Wil to get out of her sight, and then Volusian tells her that the Storm King was indeed her father. He had abducted Eugenie's mother and gotten her pregnant. Roland saved them both, and killed the Storm King so he couldn't invade or claim Eugenie.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Roland confirms the rumours and tells Eugenie that the Storm King found her and they had fought. Eugenie had been struck by lightning in the process. Roland had wiped her memories and started training her as a shaman shortly after.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie returns home and is attacked by a Gray Man. She fights him off and Kiyo turns up. Kiyo tells Eugenie that Queen Maiwenn from Willow Land ordered him to mark her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Volusian warns Eugenie that people are going to start coming after her because they will want to have sex with her. He suggests that she claims her title as the Storm Queen so that people start to treat her with respect.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Someone else attacks Eugenie and threatens her mother, so she unleashes her storm powers on them. Maiwenn and Kiyo turn up and Maiwenn heals Eugenie's mother. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie returns to Dorian. She asks for help with the elemental thing and they end up kissing. Kiyo interrogates her over it and she's like MATE who do you think you're talking to, you're clearly into Maiwenn. He denies it, of course. Kiyo and Eugenie get attacked by a fachan and then return to the human world.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dorian goes to Eugenie's house and it's all very awkward. Dorian implies that Maiwenn sent the fachan after Eugenie.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dorian tries to train Eugenie to use her storm powers but she goes a bit OTT. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie attends one of Dorian's dinners and Aeson turns up. He says that if Eugenie will go with him for one night, Jasmine will be freed.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">It turns out that Maiwenn is pregnant with Kiyo's child. Eugenie gets very upset because he's kept this from her. Eugenie goes to Dorian and offers him sex in exchange for his help saving Jasmine and taking down Aeson. He refuses, but they do practice with her powers again and this time she's able to find the water and the wine.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dorian joins Eugenie in the human world. They have a talk about children, and it turns out that Dorian is really desperate for kids. They train some more and some nixies attack Eugenie while she's tied up. So Dorian kills them all.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Eugenie talks to Maiwenn, who tells her that the gentry aren't too happy with the Storm Queen's child being fathered by Dorian. Which is very presumptuous if you ask me. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dorian and Eugenie do even more training and it all goes very well. Especially since it ends in hot sex.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dorian and Eugenie go to rescue Jasmine. There's obviously a fight, which ends with Eugenie killing Aeson by making him explode (the body is 65% water, you know) and then Eugenie takes his kingdom. Jasmine gets upset and it turns out that she's Eugenie's sister by the Storm King. Kiyo gets killed and Eugenie goes to rescue him from the spirit world before he dies for good. There, she meets her father, who tells her that she's a vessel for his future grandson who is prophesised to rule the worlds. Jasmine is also a vessel, which is disturbing because she's so young. Anyway, Eugenie rescues Kiyo, and Alder Land becomes Thorn Land. Dorian says he's willing to share Eugenie (he clearly loves her) and Eugenie gets back with Kiyo because apparently she loves him.</div>
<br />
<h2>
Anything else</h2>
Gentry: Also known as the shining ones. Basically fae.<br />
Keres: Ancient death spirits that like to haunt shoes.<br />
Kitsune: Japanese fox spirits.<br />
Otherworld: Where the gentry live. It's a separate world to the human one.Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-28749958258484171212014-12-21T08:59:00.004-08:002014-12-21T09:03:15.765-08:00Poison Study by Maria V Snyder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img border="0" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388519019l/60510.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title: </b>Poison Study<br />
<b>Author: </b>Maria V Snyder<br />
<b>Series: </b>Study #1<br />
- <i>Poison Study </i>(October 2005)<br />
- Magic Study (October 2006)<br />
- Fire Study (March 2008)<br />
- Shadow Study (2015)<br />
- Night Study (2015)<br />
- Untitled (unknown)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60510.Poison_Study">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison...<br />
<br />
About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.<br />
<br />
And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.<br />
<br />
As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After spending almost a year in a cell for killing her benefactor General Brazell's son, Yelena is walking towards what she thinks is her death, when she is offered a devil's bargain - to become Commander Ambrose's (Ixia's new ruler) food taster. Despite the occupational hazard, Yelena accepts, and begins her training in learning the intricacies of poisons under Valek, the head of the Commander's intelligence network. But her past comes back to haunt her in the form of Brazell, who wants revenge, and a master magician named Irys who discovers that Yelena has magic and warns her to control it. Brazell is also plotting against the King with Mogkan, another magician, and they gradually take control of the Commander's mind, with the ultimate goal of taking over Ixia. Once he's completely in their thrall, they compel him to travel to Brazell's land, bringing Yelena along, while ordering Valek to stay behind. But Valek obviously follows, and once he's discovered, both he and Yelena are thrown in the dungeons. Irys slips into Yelena's mind and tells her how to destroy Mogkan's source of power. Yelena and Valek escape the dungeons and free the orphans whom Mogkan was using for power, and then defeat Brazell and Mogkan with Irys's help. Everyone thinks the Commander is beyond help, but Yelena uses her magic to help him recover, while at the same time uncovering a his deepest secret. Once the Commander recovers, he banishes Yelena from Ixia, never to set foot in his territory again. Although he's grateful to her, magic is banned from Ixia and punishable by death. Add to that the fact that Yelena knows his secret, her fate is sealed. She sets off to Sitia with Irys, who has taken the kidnapped orphans under her care, and vows to reunite them with their families.</div>
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">For the last year, Yelena has been in a cell for murdering her benefactor's (General Brazell) son, Reyad. Just when she thinks she's going to her death, she's called to meet Valek, the Commander's head of intelligence, who offers her a deal - hang to death, or become the Commander's new food taster (the last one died from poisoning). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Yelena accepts the offer and begins training in toxicology. But then, when Brazell arrives at court, he sets out to avenge his son, and sends his soldiers after Yelena, who evades them. She recalls how Reyad had tortured her cruelly, trying to draw her into performing magic, which she is convinced she cannot. Magic, fyi, has been forbidden in Ixia ever since the military came to power.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Brazell sends a gift to the Commander, a sweet that quickly becomes his favourite.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">During the fire festival, Yelena is ambushed by Southerners who attempt to murder her, but is rescued by Valek. Later, she comes across one of them, a woman, who warns her that she's using unknowingly using magic, and drawing too much power, throwing off the balance of the world. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Generals arrive at court for a meeting, where Brazell announces the completion of a factory for producing his now famous sweet, Criollo. His partner, Mogkan, attempts to kill Yelena, but Valek steps in again. Strangely, the Commander is unconcerned about Brazell's treachery.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">A Sitian delegation arrives at court, with the woman who attacked Yelena as their ambassador. Irys gifts the Commander the Sitians' finest cognac to drink, and Yelena, upon tasting it, figures out its poisoned, just before collapsing. They discover that the poison was meant for Yelena, by General Brazell.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Irys offers to take Yelena with her when she leaves, and train her to use her magic. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Brazell invites the Commander to inspect his factory. Valek alone is ordered to stay back, while the Commander and Yelena, with a guard, travel to Brazell's land. On the way, it becomes obvious that he Commander's mental faculties have been compromised. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Once at Brazell's manor house, Yelena escapes and meets Irys, who explains that the Criollo has softened the Commander's mind, bringing him under Mogkan's control. She is convinced that Mogkan is using extra power, and urges Yelena to find and destroy the source. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Valek, having stealthily followed the entourage, reveals himself, and they search for the source of magic. But before they can find it, they are captured by Brazell's soldiers and thrown in the dungeons, from whence they soon escape.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They find out that Mogkan has been sapping the energy from the orphans' under Brazell's roof. Yelena breaks the connection with her magic, and together with Yalek, Irys and their friends, they manage to kill Brazell and Mogkan, and capture their soldiers. </li>
</ul>
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although Mogkan's influence over the Commander's mind has lifted, he is still in a weakened state, and they fear too far gone to ever recover. Yelena attempts to enter his mind and guide him to reality. She succeeds, and in the process discovers the Commander's greatest secret. Once the Commander recovers, he is thankful to Yelena for her help, but recognises the threat she poses to his position, both due to her power, as well as her knowledge of his secret. He banishes her from Ixia.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yelena travels with Irys to Sitia. They take Mogkan's orphans with them, as they are in truth Sitian children who'd been kidnapped from their families for their magic, and set out to reunite them with their families.</div>
<h2>
anything else</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ixia: A territory that was only a generation ago taken over by the military, and is now divided into eight military districts, each governed by a general. Magic is forbidden in Ixia, and all magicians put to death.<br />
Sitia: Territory south of Ixia, where there is magic abound. </div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01869905647422999446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-57658817856797378442014-12-14T03:32:00.001-08:002014-12-14T03:32:05.818-08:00The Falconer by Elizabeth May<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZ2YwmxBad12Aj1vj16YR1ZyqpfFPt27RrND2y6UfF_WJc3rBnXnVJ0eHQhJIYrdrJX7S25aBYPixO6iJ2RbuoapSvjaJcz6wOwJwv0f1kEQzadP0cpI2i67J0ouDAOtqjozi84T765M/s1600/falconer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZ2YwmxBad12Aj1vj16YR1ZyqpfFPt27RrND2y6UfF_WJc3rBnXnVJ0eHQhJIYrdrJX7S25aBYPixO6iJ2RbuoapSvjaJcz6wOwJwv0f1kEQzadP0cpI2i67J0ouDAOtqjozi84T765M/s1600/falconer.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a><br />
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> The Falconer<br />
<b>Author:</b> Elizabeth May<br />
<b>Series: </b>The Falconer #1<br />
- <i>The Falconer</i> (May 2014)<br />
- The Vanishing Throne (September 2015)<br />
- Untitled (2016)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15791085-the-falconer?ac=1">Goodreads</a><br />
<h2>
summary </h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.</blockquote>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This recap was written by our tremendous sidekick, <a href="http://iteachya.blogspot.com/">Katie Fatiga</a>, who continues to slay.</div>
<div>
<a name='more'></a><h2 style="text-align: justify;">
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It has been a year since Aileana Kameron witnessed the death of her mother at the hands of a brutal Baobhan Sith (a solitary female faery). Since then, she has been haunted by the memories of the event. Aileana is trying to keep it together, trying to be a dutiful daughter, trying to take back her status in society after last year’s event. But the only way she has found to numb the pain is through the systematic murder of every faery she comes in contact with. It’s been a long year. Unfortunately, it seems as though things are only destined to get worse. The fae folk are multiplying at an alarming rate, and it appears as though the seal that has kept them at bay, locked in an underground prison for hundreds of years is about to break wide open! Luckily Aileana has some help. With the aid of a rogue faery (Kiaran), a sassy pixie (Derek) and her unintentionally betrothed Gavin (a Seer) the seal is located. And with much effort the wheels are turned to begin the resealing of the faery mounds. Sadly though, by sealing the mounds, Aileana will also be forced to seal Kiaran back under the ground. She almost completes the task but at the last moment, Lonrach, a powerful faery escaped from the mound throws Kiaran at Aileana’s protective force field. Kiaran’s face is mutilated, he may be dead, but Lonrach warns that he will heal and Aileana may not like the outcome. CLIFFHANGER!! </div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
What went down </h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana is attending another society function with her best friend Catherine. And while it should be a lovely event complete with dancing and handsome young bachelors, Aileana cannot get the images of another such event out of her mind. You see, almost a year ago, Aileana’s mother was murdered at a ball just like this one. Aileana’s debut in society was marred by that murder and the elite of Edinburgh cannot stop talking about her, and not in a good way. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Catherine and her mother have asked Aileana to stay out of trouble at tonight’s ball, but trouble seems to find Aileana wherever she goes. After another dance, with yet another boring suitor, Aileana is sidetracked by the smell of a faery. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Apparently, faeries trigger a series of distinct tastes/smells to the senses of trained faery hunters, Seers, and those who wear the seilgflur (a thistle which gifts the wearer with the sight).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana locates the faery sucking the life force out of the eldery host of the party and disposes of it. She then saves the life of the gentleman victim (using a stitching kit, did I mention this setting is vaguely steampunky? No? It is. Lots of gadgets, gears and gizmos to come). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana returns home where her bff, a honey-lovin’ pixie named Derek waits with news of her mother’s murderer (a Baobhan Sith named Sorcha). She is on a murderous rampage, killing at least 2 to 3 people a night and on her way back to Edinburgh.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana heads out of her room through the secret passage she helped construct into the wall and meets Kiaran MacKay(a rogue Daoine Sith, super-powerful, super-stoic & super-hot faery) for an evening lesson in faery hunting. For unknown reasons, Kiaran saved Aileana after her mother’s death and has been training her in the intricacies of faery murder ever since.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The two run into a group of huge redcap faeries, finally taking them down, but also destroying an entire bridge when Aileana uses one of her many faery hunting inventions.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana realizes that there are an excessive amount of faeries hanging around Edinburgh. Kiaran lets the cat out the bag that the seal set in place hundreds of years ago to trap the baddest faeries underground in prison-like mounds is loosening and will be totally obsolete by the lunar eclipse in about 6 days!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Turns out the only person who could possibly save the world is Aileana (duh)! She is a Falconer. She comes from a long line of people with the power to trap and/or destroy faeries and only she can find the seal and reset it.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">But there is still the matter of trying to keep up illusions and perform her duties as 19th century Scottish girl. Parties await, husbands must be wooed, you know normal stuff. So during a ball given in the honor of Catherine’s returning brother Gavin, Aileana is followed by a group of Cu Sith (faery hounds). Gavin sees & hears them first (turns out he is gifted with the power of a Seer & can both see the faeries without the power of the thistle but also has visions of the future, not so great as it sounds). Aileana uses her last thistle to destroy a hound and the two run off into the rainy night.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Obviously they are followed but take to the air in Aileana’s orinthopter (flying car). Too bad there are also Sluag (dragon-like faeries) after them. The two are able to work together to stave off the faery onslaught and Aileana returns home exhausted.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The next morning she is called on by Kiaran who divulges some additional information about being a Falconer but hastily leaves to retrieve a medical kit once he realizes that Aileana has been poisoned by barbs from the Cu Sith’s paws. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana’s absent father returns and informs Aileana that someone saw her returning late last night in a compromising position with Gavin. To avoid a scandal, Gavin has offered his hand in marriage. They are to be wed in a fortnight. Aileana is obviously heartbroken.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kiaran returns that night to fix Aileana’s wounds. The two share a brief intimate moment, and Aileana almost sees some emotional qualities behind his usual stony presence (he had once loved another human, a falconer like her, but lost her. He also had once been known as Kadamach, one of the most ruthless faeries in the world). </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The eclipse is approaching and Aileana must find the seal. They locate it near Queen’s park but its combination of gears and symbols must be rearranged into a precise configuration on the day of the eclipse so Aileana memorizes the current combination and rewrites it into her notes to study for later. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kiaran treats Aileana to one last moment of fun before the potential end of world and two travel into the faery realm. On their way back, however they are interrupted by Sorcha, the Baobhan Sith who killed her mother. Sorcha reveals that she can use Aileana’s trauma to control her mind recall the horrible night of her mother’s death over and over again. But this also triggers all of Aileana’s rage and she almost kills Sorcha, but not before Kiaran intervenes.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Aileana is obviously pissed that she did not get the chance to kill her mother’s murderer but Kiaran reveals that if she were to kill Sorcha, Kiaran too would die. Double bummer, the original faery who set the seal is Kiaran’s sister and the only way to save her from being re-imprisoned in the mound is for Kiaran to take her place.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The final showdown takes place in Queen’s park. Kiaran has gifted Aileana with faery armor that gives her the extra strength and healing power of Kiaran himself (also he gives her a pretty spectacular make-out scene). The two fight and kill bunches of fae folk using their super-strength and some of Aileana’s awesome weapons (like a sonic cannon). Aileana is able to get to the seal, unlock it, set up the golden shield and rearrange the symbols based on the position of the stars. But just as she is about to click the last symbol into place, Lonrach (Sorcha’s evil faery brother) hurls Kiaran into the shield. He breaks through burning one entire side of his face. Aileana assumes him dead but Lonrach assures her he is not. However, he warns that perhaps when he comes to, she will “wish you had killed Kadamach when you had the chance.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2>
anything else</h2>
Seilgflur = soft thistle enables wearer to see faeries<br />Baobhan Sith = solitary female faery, strong telepathic abilities<br />Daoine Sith = former rulers of faery realm, super-hot, super-aggressive<br />Cu Sith = faery hounds<br />Sluagh = dragon-like faery<br />Falconer = race of humans with exceptional abilities of defeating faeries<br />Seer = sense and see faeries, have visions of future, not much good for anything elseAmber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-37789396311258112712014-12-14T03:20:00.000-08:002014-12-14T03:20:12.738-08:00Cress by Marissa Meyer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjadyTCT7pAVtr_PvdoGrtVYJIxlcMaJcocE00jETj2ab7D_Mw87MoXdYSZ4L3tUGVRuK-os6RbdW1BN0PyHRgDp8T7THdQNJTlIfP1tqvJ5VoUfYQT8EH-Sm4iQiBzlHq2F2Caew-reHI/s1600/cress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjadyTCT7pAVtr_PvdoGrtVYJIxlcMaJcocE00jETj2ab7D_Mw87MoXdYSZ4L3tUGVRuK-os6RbdW1BN0PyHRgDp8T7THdQNJTlIfP1tqvJ5VoUfYQT8EH-Sm4iQiBzlHq2F2Caew-reHI/s1600/cress.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title: </b>Cress</div>
<div>
<b>Author:</b> Marissa Meyer</div>
<div>
<b>Series:</b> The Lunar Chronicles #3</div>
<div>
- <a href="http://recaptains.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/cinder-by-marissa-meyer.html">Cinder</a> (January 2012)</div>
<div>
- <a href="http://recaptains.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/scarlet-by-marissa-meyer.html">Scarlet</a> (February 2013)</div>
<div>
- <i>Cress </i>(February 2014)</div>
<div>
- Fairest (January 2015)</div>
<div>
- Winter (November 2015)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13206828-cress">Goodreads</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.</div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
This incredibly detailed recap was written and submitted by the wonderful <a href="http://theoverstuffedbookcase.blogspot.co.uk/">Andrea @ The Overstuffed Bookcase</a>, who is the most awesome sidekick.<a name='more'></a></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
IN SHORT</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cress is a Lunar girl who has been held captive on a satellite orbiting Earth for several years. She has to do the Lunar Queen Levana's bidding, but instead she defies Levana and Levana's head thaumaturge Sybil Mira, and gets Cinder, Scarlet, Thorne, and Wolf to come to save her. However, things don't really work out and Thorne and Cress are stuck on the satellite which is now falling to Earth, Scarlet is kidnapped by Sybil, and a Lunar guard, Jacin, is now aboard the Rampion with Cinder and Wolf, who is wounded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cinder and Jacin take Wolf to Dr. Erland in Africa, while Cress and a blinded Thorne crash into Earth, cross the Sahara, get double-crossed by some local people, and still manage to make their way back to Cinder, all while Scarlet is being tortured and abused and questioned on Luna.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cinder comes up with a plan to kidnap Prince Kai on the day he is supposed to marry Levana. Erland, Thorne, Cress, Wolf, Cinder, and Iko all infiltrate the palace and play their parts for the plan to work. They succeed in kidnapping Kai but Iko is hurt and Cinder uses her Lunar powers to torture Thaumaturge Sybil, and later worries that she is becoming like Levana.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Scarlet is being held captive on Luna by Princess Winter, Levana's stepdaughter, and Scarlet doesn't trust her. But Winter gives her some candies that take away all her pain. Kai and Cinder argue, but Cinder tells him that she is Princess Selene and that she is planning to go to Luna and start a revolution.</div>
<h2>
<span style="text-align: justify;">WHAT WENT DOWN</span></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress (Crescent) has been living on a satellite for years, doing Queen Levana's bidding as commanded to her by Levana's head thaumaturge, Sybil Mira. Cress hacks into Earthen computer systems, hiding Lunar ships that go down to Earth. Now she feels she's responsible for the thousands of people who died during the Lunar Operative attack at the end of Book 2. Cress is Lunar, but she's a shell. She knows that Levana is planning on taking over the entire Earth once she is married to Kai. Sybil comes to visit Cress on the satellite and is mad that Cress hasn't yet found Cinder. She takes a sample of Cress's blood and leaves. Cress has been looking up info on Cinder, Kai, and Thorne, and she has a major crush on Thorne, who may not be as selfish as he appears. And Cress does know where Cinder is, but she's not going to tell Sybil.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, and Thorne are aboard the Rampion (Thorne's ship). Iko is plugged into the ship's central operating system. Wolf is training Cinder to use her Lunar gift against him, in preparation for the day when she has to fight against Levana and all her Lunar guards, but it's not going too well. They are all planning on crashing Levana's wedding to Kai, which is in 2 weeks. Iko shares some news with them that some of the countries of Earth are arresting the Lunar Operatives who were involved in the attack. It turns out the Lunar Ops were given ID chips of dead Earthen people, and Cinder realizes why they tried to take Peony's ID chip after she died in Book 1. That's how they were able to disguise themselves on Earth.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress is playing games on her satellite when she gets a comm from Cinder, Scarlet, Wolf, and Thorne. Cinder wants Cress to send her evidence of Levana spying on Earthens. Cress agrees to send her the evidence, but implies that Sybil will find out and Cress will be killed. Cinder and the others decide to come and rescue Cress.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kai is planning his wedding to Levana, but luckily there's a planner, Tashmi Priya, to organize and plan most of it. Kai is convinced that Levana will kill him once she becomes Empress. His head adviser, Torin, helps him focus on trying to thwart Levana, instead of just dwelling on the negative. Kai's android Nainsi arrives and tells them the daily reports. Torin leaves and Nainsi tells Kai that she believes Cinder was in Rieux, France, to try to find Princess Selene.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Erland is in Africa, waiting impatiently for Cinder. He is still conducting research, and a lot of the townspeople around him are Lunar. We find out (if we didn't know before) that Erland was a head scientist on Luna and was the one who first put wolf DNA into some of the Lunar soldiers. He feels horrible for this, and also laments the murder of his “Crescent Moon.” A Lunar boy comes to Erland offering to be a part of his research because his brother is sick. His brother is also Lunar, but is a shell, and has Letumosis. Before now, Lunars were immune to Letumosis, and Erland thinks that perhaps the disease is mutating.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Minutes before Cress is set to be rescued, Sybil shows up on the satellite again, commanding that Cress makes a new recording device for Kai's office. A comm comes from the Rampion and Sybil realizes that Cress was trying to escape. Cress tries to get away by running to Sybil's podship, where she runs into its pilot, Jacin. Sybil tells Jacin to fly the podship away from the satellite, while she and Cress wait for the Rampion to arrive. Thorne takes one of the Rampion's podships and heads to the satellite. Sybil is there, disguised as Cress, and she and Jacin overpower Thorne and tie him up next to Cress. Sybil and Jacin board the Rampion's podship and head back toward the Rampion, but not before they set the satellite to fall to Earth. Cinder, Scarlet, and Wolf, aboard the Rampion, saw Jacin's podship dock at the satellite, and know that there might be some foul play at hand. But Cinder doesn't want to leave without Thorne, so they allow the Rampion's podship to come back aboard, and Cinder goes to meet it. She finds an injured Thorne who turns out to actually be Jacin, and then Sybil shows up. She threatens to kill Cinder right there, but Wolf runs in and attacks Sybil. Jacin shoots Wolf just as Cinder shoots Jacin. Sybil uses her mind control on Wolf, and Wolf tries to attack Cinder. Scarlet comes in and shoots at Sybil, but Wolf runs in the way of the bullet and gets hit. Jacin shoots Sybil and says that Cinder is controlling him, but she's not. Sybil releases her hold of Wolf and moves away, with Jacin running after her. Cinder gets Wolf out of the loading dock. She goes back in and gets Scarlet out, and then tells Iko to seal the doors and open the hatch to space. Cinder realizes she didn't grab Scarlet, but a disguised Jacin. Sybil grabs Scarlet and gets into a podship and flies off.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Wolf is badly injured and Jacin tells Cinder that Thorne and Cress are dead or will be soon, once the satellite hits the Earth's atmosphere. He suggests that they go somewhere to save Wolf, because Levana's fleet will be chasing them soon. He says that he doesn't serve the queen, “I serve my princess. No one else.” Cinder takes that to mean that he somehow knows she is Princess Selene, and that she can trust Jacin. Cinder decides they should take Wolf to Dr. Erland. They find him in Farafrah, a town somewhere in Africa, and Erland agrees to heal Wolf.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Thorne and Cress get out of their binds on the satellite and Cress hacks into the system to make sure the parachute will work so that they don't just crash land on Earth. Thorne gets knocked unconscious but Cress is awake for the entire descent to Earth. Thorne wakes up with a bump on his head and is blind. They're tangled up in Cress's hair so Thorne cuts it with his knife. They've landed in a desert, and nothing works on the satellite so they decide to leave it and try to find civilization. Cress goes into shock when they get outside, and Thorne snaps her out of it, saying that he needs her, since he can't see. Cress sees some mountains and they head in that direction. As they trek across the desert, Cress tells Thorne about how Sybil was doing experiments on shells on Luna, and she was one of them. She got really good at hacking into computer systems and Sybil wanted to use those skills. Cress said that there was a lot she could do closer to Earth, and Sybil built the satellite for her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kai is having a conference with the other Earthen leaders and they have found out that there are tons of Lunar ships hovering just out of the Earth's atmosphere. Some of the leaders want to attack the ships, but Kai says that he'll talk to Aimery Park, Levana's thaumaturge who is now at Kai's palace. Kai then goes to a meeting with Priya, the wedding planner, who suggests that they hire a mix of humans and escort-droids (who look like humans) for the wedding staff, that way they can be alerted if the Lunars try anything, because the escort-droids can see through the Lunar glamour and can't be brainwashed. She also suggests that the droids record everything.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Erland performs some kind of surgery on Wolf. He chastises Cinder for not coming to meet him right away, and Cinder says that she had to do some searching before she could just accept the fact that she was Princess Selene. Cinder tells Erland about their plan to crash the wedding, and he thinks it's a bad plan and that she needs to go to Luna first, and convince the Lunars that she is Selene. Erland tells Cinder his fears that Letumosis is evolving and that Lunars may no longer be immune. He tells her about all the Lunars in Farafrah, and how the Earthens of the town have grown to accept them. He has also told the people of Farafrah that Cinder plans on killing Levana, so now they all love Cinder.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Thaumaturge Park and Kai finally have a meeting. We find out that when Kai and Levana marry, Levana will be Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth and will hold all the power of that title, while Kai will only be King Consort of Luna, which is a title with little to no power. Kai confronts Park about the Lunar ships surrounding Earth, and Park makes some kind of excuse about them being Lunars on vacation. Kai doesn't buy it, and tells Park that the ships need to go back to Luna within 24 hours or he can't guarantee what the other Earthen leaders will do. Park says that the ships technically aren't in the Earth's atmosphere so they're not breaking any laws. Park leaves and Kai tells Torin about the theory that Princess Selene might still be alive and Cinder might have found her. Torin tries to convince Kai that there are more important things to worry about, but gives up once he understands that Kai is not going to stop trying to find Selene. Nainsi tells them that she thinks Scarlet got onto the Rampion before it disappeared, and Kai thinks Scarlet must be Selene. Torin still thinks Cinder is dangerous so he's not keen on the idea that she might have Selene with her, and he reminds Kai that he really knows nothing about Cinder. Kai decides he's going to find out all he can about Cinder.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress and Thorne have spent days trekking the desert, and Cress now has a fever. In her dizzy and sick state, she tells Thorne that she's in love with him, but he just shrugs it off. She thinks she's dying and is sad that she'll die without ever being kissed. Thorne promises her that he'll kiss her when she's about to die. Cress sees that the dunes are getting smaller and she sees a gazelle-like animal, which is then shot. A man appears, and Thorne makes up a story about them being newlyweds who were on their honeymoon and were robbed. The man leads them to an oasis where a group of traders is camped. The traders give them food and water, and Cress passes out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cinder and Jacin visit a pharmacy in Farafrah, looking for supplies for Erland. We learn more about Jacin, like how he has loved ones on Luna who will probably die since he is now on Cinder's side. Jacin was actually at the ball in Book 1 and he asks Cinder how she at first seemed completely human and then all of a sudden she had tons of Lunar powers. She tells him about the device that her adoptive father (Linh Garan) created that kept her from using her Lunar gift. It also kept her from going crazy, like most Lunars do when they don't use their gift for a long time.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Scarlet is being controlled by Sybil, and is piloting the podship back to Luna. Once they dock on Luna, Scarlet kind of comes out of the trance and remembers the fight that happened back on the Rampion. While Sybil is being treated for her wound, Scarlet tries to escape but fails. Sybil says that Levana will eventually want to question Scarlet, but that in the meantime, Scarlet can be give to a Lunar family.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress wakes up after being unconscious for 2 days. Her feet were infected and that was how she became sick. Thorne, who is now wearing a bandanna over his eyes, tells Cress that he doesn't want to hurt her, that he's not the right guy for her, that he's not the hero she believes him to be. Cress, Thorne, and the traders pack up camp and head for Kufra, a town not too far away. Jina, a woman from the trader group, helps them get a hotel room. Cress takes a bath and Thorne comes in, enticed by her singing. He can't see her but she's still freaked out. Thorne tells her he wants to go into town by himself to try to find out more info. Cress tries to go with him, but he leaves without her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cinder and Jacin are painting part of the Rampion, trying to disguise it. Wolf wakes up and Erland thinks he'll fully recover. Wolf wants to know where Scarlet is, and Cinder expects him to explode when she tells him, but he crumples instead. Then she says that they'll rescue her and then Wolf explodes. Erland knocks him out with something in a syringe before he can hurt anyone.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress finishes her bath and starts looking for info on where the Rampion might be. She sees on the news that no one knows where Cinder is, but she also sees that people are reporting on her satellite's crash. She worries that the traders that helped them will see the news and realize that she and Thorne were from the crash. But she's also hopeful that Cinder will see the news and come find them. Cress goes to find Thorne to tell him and she finds him playing cards in the hotel lobby, and there's a woman in his lap. She runs back to her room, upset, but is locked out. Jina finds her, comforts her, gives her some new shoes, and invites her to dinner. Cress doesn't want to be outside her room when Thorne comes back, and she also doesn't want to cause a scene asking for a new key from the front desk, so she agrees to go with Jina. Jina knows Cress and Thorne aren't married, and she also knows that Cress is Lunar and that she was on the satellite that crashed. Jina tells Cress that there are Lunars living around Kufra, and she guesses that Cress is a shell. They meet up with a couple of the other traders who are loading up a vehicle to go to Farafrah. Someone grabs Cress and throws her in the back of the vehicle.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Thorne is still playing cards and losing every hand. The woman who has been sitting in his lap, “helping” him play has actually been working for one of the other men playing cards. She has been telling him he has no hand when he actually does. But Thorne knows what she's doing and goes all in when she tells him he has no hand, and he ends up winning. The woman who was “helping” him is actually an escort-droid, and Thorne figured that out as well. The man who owns the escort-droid is furious that Thorne won, even though that man was the one who was cheating. Thorne offers to buy the escort-droid off the man and call it even, but the man punches Thorne instead. Jamal, one of the traders who helped Cress and Thorne, helps Thorne escape the fight, and takes him to his hotel room. Thorne confesses that he was buying the escort-droid for Iko (he IS a softie!). Jamal knows that Cress and Thorne came from the crashed satellite. Jamal tries to buy Cress from Thorne, saying she'll fetch a nice price with some scientist in Farafrah. Thorne realizes that Jamal isn't really offering to buy Cress, but that he's just distracting Thorne instead while the other traders have taken Cress to Farafrah. The escort-droid now belongs to Thorne, and he tells her to find them a quick way to get to Farafrah.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Kai goes to the medical labs in the palace and tells Fateen (the girl who worked with Erland in Book 1) that he needs access to Cinder's records. Kai and Torin see the records, find out that Cinder is immune to Letumosis, and find out the theory that Lunars were the original carriers of Letumosis and that they brought it to Earth. They also see a note from Erland in Cinder's file that says “Finally. I've found her.” Kai is surprised that the cyborg draft is still going on, and he tells Fateen that Levana has a Letumosis antidote. Torin says that info should remain confidential for now and gets angry at Kai for telling her. Fateen leaves. Kai realizes that Cinder must have taken the antidote (that Levana had given to him and that Kai had given to Erland) to the quarantines (Book 1) to try to save Peony, but that it was too late for her and so Cinder gave it to that other boy instead. Kai wonders why cyborgs are the only ones who are drafted for the Letumosis research, and we learn that ever since there were cyborgs, people were prejudiced against them, and wanted them to be controlled. Kai realizes that this all might be wrong, that it's wrong to only use cyborgs for the draft. He decides that they have a right to say no, and he decides that the is going to end the draft.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cinder visits the Rampion in Farafrah. She still wants to stop the wedding before going to Luna. Iko shows her how Kai has ended the cyborg draft, and also shows her a confidential order form showing that the palace has ordered 60 escort-droids for the wedding day. Cinder starts to concoct a new plan, where Levana will somehow be convinced they should have the wedding on Luna instead of at Kai's palace. They see that Adri and Pearl have been invited to the wedding. Jacin comes in and he and Cinder get into an argument, and Cinder punches him after he insults her relationship with Kai. Then it all comes out that Jacin's “princess” is Winter, Levana's stepdaughter, and he doesn't know that Cinder is really Princess Selene. Jacin is sworn to protect Winter. Cinder still asks Jacin to help her and she promises she'll get him back to Luna, but she decides to keep her true identity from him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cress and her captors get to Farafrah and Cress sees the Rampion but because they have painted it, she doesn't think it's Thorne's ship. Jina and Niels (another trader) take Cress to Erland, and Cress feels like she's seen him before. Jina and Erland haggle for a price and settle on 27,000 univs. Erland takes a blood sample from Cress and Cress can see that he feels conflicted about hurting her. Erland pays Jina and she and Niels leave. Cress doesn't trust Erland when he tries to explain that he won't hurt her, and she knocks him out and runs. She hides in a closet down the hall from Erland's hotel room and waits for him to wake up and go after her. Erland wakes up and we find out his name on Luna was Dr. Sage Darnel, and that he and his wife had a baby who was a shell, and that they were forced to give the baby to Sybil, and Erland believes that baby was killed, that all shells were killed. We also find out that Queen Channary (Levana's sister and Cinder's mother) was the one who first ordered the wolf hybrids to be made. Once again we see that Erland's daughter's name was Crescent Moon, and we learn that Erland was trying to duplicate the antidote that Levana had given Kai, and he knew that shells' DNA would help him make that antidote. Erland does a test on Cress's blood and finds out that she is his daughter. Cress finally gives up on waiting for Erland to leave and she sneaks down the hall to find a netscreen. She finds one in a room and goes in and then realizes that there is a man in the bed, asleep. She turns the netscreen on anyway and sends a comm to the hotel in Kufra to try to contact Thorne, but he's no longer there. She sees some news about Erland and realizes that the man who just bought her from Jina was also the man who helped Cinder escape prison. The man in the bed (Wolf) wakes up and is still disoriented. He thinks Cress is going to do experiments on him, and that she has something to do with him becoming a wolf hybrid. Jacin comes into the room then, and he recognizes Cress. Wolf holds Cress as a hostage, and Erland comes in and tries to convince Wolf that he, Jacin, and Cress are not Wolf's enemies. Then Thorne comes down the hotel hall (yay!), yelling for Cress. He finds the room she's in and pulls out a gun but Wolf recognizes him. Cress realizes she's safe with these people and that Thorne came to rescue her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Cinder is trying to formulate her plan of getting into the palace when Iko sees a newsfeed about how Thorne has been spotted nearby. Cinder goes to find Jacin and Wolf and runs into Darla, Thorne's escort-droid. Cinder goes up to Wolf's room and finds all of them there. She tells them they need to leave, and Wolf asks her about Scarlet, thinking that he was dreaming when she told him before. Wolf reacts almost as badly as before, and then runs off. Cinder goes after him and tells the others to load up the ship. Jacin, Cress, Thorne, and Erland head out of the hotel but when they get outside they're surrounded by members of the Eastern Commonwealth military. They are told to get on the ground and they do so, and then the military officer tells Cinder to come out with her hands up. Cinder uses her Lunar power to control Wolf because he isn't cooperating, and they go outside. She takes control of one of the soldiers and Erland controls 6 others. Cinder tells the soldiers to let them pass, and then the townspeople show up and use their Lunar gifts to control the rest of the soldiers. The lady from the pharmacy explains to the officer that she and her fellow Lunars came there to escape from being controlled like that, and that if Levana has her way, everyone on Earth would be controlled, and that they should trust that Cinder will try to defeat Levana. The officer is angry but then lets Cinder and the others leave.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">On Luna, Scarlet has been placed with a Lunar family and has become the “pet” of the child of the family, who abuses her by practicing his Lunar powers on her while she is chained to the floor from a collar around her neck. Then she is taken to be questioned by Levana. They want to know where Cinder might be and think Scarlet knows. Scarlet doesn't know, but she tells everyone there (which includes Levana, Sybil, other thaumaturges, Lunar guards, and other Lunars) who she is and who her grandmother was. She comes just short of saying that Cinder is Princess Selene before Levana silences her with her powers, but it seems like the rest of the people there understood what she was trying to say. They keep questioning Scarlet and use their powers to torture her by making her cut off her own pinkie. A girl sitting next to Levana asks if she can have Scarlet as her pet, and Levana says she can have her after they're done with her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">On the Rampion, Erland examines Thorne's eyes and determines that they can be fixed, but that he needs a proper lab to do so. Cinder switches out Iko and Darla's personality chips, so now Iko has her very own escort-droid body. Cinder calls everyone together and tells them that she plans on kidnapping Kai. Cress turns out to be crucial to their plan-making, since she knows things like Kai's tracking number and that there are escape tunnels in the palace. Thorne suggests that he starts a distraction in the medical labs and that Erland can fix his eyes while they're there. Jacin points out that if their plan succeeds, the cease-fire between the Earthens and the Lunars will be over. Cinder admits that they'll be starting a war.<span style="text-align: center;"> </span></li>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
HOW DID IT END?</h2>
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On the day of the wedding, they take a podship to New Beijing. The town of Farafrah is on the news: all the citizens are being charged with treason because they helped Cinder, Erland, and Thorne, who are all wanted criminals. Cinder gets dropped off at the apartments where she used to live with Adri, Pearl, and Peony. She glamours herself and knocks on the door of the apartment. She claims to be part of the wedding planning committee, and is delivering Adri and Pearl's invitations. Adri says that they already received invitations and invites Cinder in to look at them. Cinder sees Peony's urn on the mantel and then switches Adri's real invitations with napkins she has glamoured to look like invitations. Adri is horrible as usual and Cinder tries to use her powers to make Adri feel some guilt for how she treated Cinder. As she leaves, Cinder feels horrible for what she just did. Iko is dropped off so that she can pretend to be one of the escort-droids that the palace has hired for the wedding. She goes to the warehouse where the droids are being shipped from and stows away on one of the delivery ships going to the wedding. Jacin drops Cinder, Thorne, and Erland off at the royal family's safe house outside of town, which has a tunnel that leads to the palace.</div>
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Cress and Wolf are at a designer boutique getting dressed up for the wedding. Iko switches clothes with one of the droids and arrives at the palace. She has to pretend to be as mindless and dull as the other droids while she waits with the catering staff. She programs one of the other droids to obey her commands and then she commands the droid to follow her. They go to a maintenance closet and Iko asks for the droid's clothes. Cress and Wolf make their way to the palace. Cress asks Wolf if he's in love with Scarlet, and he says that Scarlet is his alpha. Cress asks, “Like the star?” and then explains that the brightest star in a constellation is called the alpha, and then says, “I thought maybe you meant that she's...like...your brightest star.” Wolf says, “Exactly like that.” (Awww.) Wolf and Cress enter the palace, acting as Samhain Bristol, the Parliament representative from Toronto, and his wife. The real Mr. Bristol earlier stated that he was boycotting the wedding.</div>
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Cinder, Thorne, and Erland have used the tunnels to get to the palace. Erland is wheezing and sweating and acting kind of loopy but says he's fine. They go up some stairs and find a door with no knob. Cinder knocks and Iko opens the door from the other side. They're now in the palace, and Thorne and Erland make their way to the medical labs. Erland asks Thorne some stuff about Cress, and finds out that Sybil was doing blood tests on shells BEFORE the outbreak of Letumosis, so she couldn't have been looking for an antidote at that time. Erland prepares to perform surgery on Thorne but first he sounds an alarm to create a diversion for Cinder and the others.</div>
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Cress and Wolf are on the move once Erland has sounded the alarm. They make their way through the palace, and Cress has to manually override a palace droid so that they can use an elevator. They come to some different elevators with no droid to override and Wolf drags her into the stairwell, picks her up, and starts jumping down one level at a time. When they get to the level they need, there's a guard pointing a gun at them. Wolf knocks him out and then uses the guard's ID to get them into the security control room.</div>
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Cinder has put on the droid uniform that Iko got for her, and the two of them are making their way to Kai. Cinder runs into a woman who turns out to be a shell and recognizes Cinder. She's actually an android and after she and Cinder fight for a bit, Iko rips out the droid's control panel, stopping her. Cinder and Iko enter an elevator to get up to the tower where Kai is. Thaumaturges Sybil Mira and Aimery Park are with Levana, and they can sense that something is wrong. A guard stops them and says that there's a problem with the security and that Levana should return to her room. Sybil makes him tell her details. Levana agrees to return to her room and Sybil knows that Cress is behind the security breach, so she asks Levana if she can investigate the breach herself. Levana allows it, and tells Sybil to kill whoever is responsible.</div>
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Kai has been notified of the breach, and he's pretty anxious. Priya, the wedding planner, knocks on his door and then collapses because Cinder has shot her with one of her tranquilizer darts. Kai is shocked to see Cinder and Torin tries to stop them from taking Kai but Cinder uses her powers on him. Kai starts to distrust Cinder and backs away as she is trying to talk him into go with her. Cinder sees her old foot sitting on Kai's table. Kai and Cinder argue for a bit about her not telling him that she was cyborg and Lunar, and basically Kai refuses to go with her so she shoots him with a tranquilizer dart. Cinder removes his ID chip and Torin asks if she's really found Selene. Cinder says yes and explains that if the wedding happens, no one can overthrow Levana. She asks Torin to trust her and promises him Kai will be safe. Torin tells her that Kai has another ID chip behind his ear, and says that he'll kill Cinder if anything happens to Kai. Cress has disabled all the security systems and Wolf has knocked out every guard that has tried to get into the control room. Erland has finished the surgery on Thorn and as he is about to administer some eye drops, he sees a bruise on his wrist, which is a sign of Letumosis. He takes a sample of Thorne's blood and sees that it's negative for Letumosis. Erland decides that he will stay behind, because he doesn't want to give the disease to everyone else. He puts himself into quarantine after thanking Thorne for keeping Cress safe in the desert.</div>
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Cress and Wolf leave the control room and meet up with Iko, Cinder, and the unconscious Kai. Wolf puts Kai over his shoulder and they make their way to the labs. Cinder uses her mind control and gets several guards around the labs to be their personal guard. When they get to the lab, Cinder tries to talk Erland out of staying behind, but stops when she realizes he has Letumosis. Erland tells them that Letumosis is biological warfare, that the Lunars created the disease to weaken Earth, and that they have been making the antidote for at least 16 years. He tells Cress that he is her father, and apologizes, saying that if he knew she had been alive all this time, he would have saved her. Cress doesn't know what to say, and Cinder says they need to leave, so Cress simply says goodbye to Erland.</div>
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-Cress, Cinder, Thorne, Iko, Wolf, and the unconscious Kai head up to the roof where the Rampion is waiting for them. But Sybil and several Lunar guards are there as well. Sybil orders the guards to kill all of them except Kai and Wolf. The guards get out their guns but Cinder uses her powers to make them all throw their guns off the building. Sybil controls Wolf and makes him fight Cinder. The guards attack and then they're all fighting. Cinder seems to be better at controlling her gift. Iko attacks Wolf but Wolf twists her neck, and doing so, disconnects some of her wiring. Wolf keeps attacking Cinder but Cinder concentrates on Sybil, trying to get into Sybil's mind. Cress is telling Thorne what's going on, and she's very worried they're all going to die. Thorne says, “I guess it's time” and then kisses her. (Yay!) Then Cress helps him aim his gun at some of the guards. Sybil screams and falls on the ground, twitching. Wolf comes out of her spell and a guard tells Cinder to stop or he will crush Cress's throat. Thorne knocks the guard unconscious with his cane. Cinder isn't responding to Wolf, Thorne, and Cress, so Thorne opens up Cinder's control panel, thinking she needs to be rebooted. Cinder is not happy about that and closes the panel. Thorne reminds her that they need to get out of there. They carry Iko's body and unconscious Kai onto the Rampion. Sybil starts laughing and Wolf grabs her and asks her if Scarlet is still alive. But Sybil is incoherent so he drops her and goes back onto the Rampion.</div>
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Levana is fuming in her quarters. Torin knocks on her door and tells her that Kai has been kidnapped by Cinder. Levana says that since the Earth's police and military have failed to catch Cinder, she is now going to take things into her own hands. She wants to see security footage, and Torin says yes but that they are missing some footage from during the breach. Thaumaturge Park wants to talk to Levana in private and tells her that Dr. Sage Darnel (Erland) is in quarantine in the palace labs. Levana goes to see him and tells him she might have an antidote, but she won't give it to him. Erland says he wouldn't take it from her anyway, knowing the truth behind the plague and the antidote. Levana tells Erland that her parents were the ones who hired scientists to manufacture Letumosis, and Channary (her sister) hired scientists to find a cure, and Levana figured out how to get the plague down to Earth. She didn't actually send Lunars down to Earth—she just had her security team ignore Lunars who “escaped” Luna. Levana thinks no one will know what Erland has figured out but Erland laughs and says that he didn't keep the information to himself. Park returns with Jerrico, the captain of Levana's guard, who tells her about what happened on the roof, and that Sybil apparently threw herself off the roof after the Rampion left. Erland says she deserved it. Some of Jerrico's men bring in Jacin, who says that he is innocent because Cinder used her mind control on him. He claims he has been pretending to be on Cinder's side so that he can spy on her. He says he sent Sybil an anonymous comm, telling her when and where the Rampion would be. Levana asks him what he has found out if he really has been spying, and he says that Cinder can control minds, but can't do it while physically fighting. He says that she definitely wouldn't be able to torture someone to the point of insanity, and Levana says that he's either stupid or lying because Cinder just did that to Sybil. Erland yells that Cinder can kill everyone, that she's Princess Selene and she will destroy Levana. Jacin seems to understand what Erland has said and looks like he's about to laugh, so Levana sends him away, saying he'll be questioned on Luna. Levana tells Park that he's now her head thaumaturge, to get ready to leave, to have her scientists research the new strain of Letumosis, and to ready her troops for an attack on Earth. Erland dies, singing a lullaby and whispering Cress's name.</div>
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Cress works her hacking magic to ensure the Rampion won't be found via satellite or radar. Thorne had helped Cinder take off, but they were now in orbit and if they needed to escape quickly, they were screwed because they had no pilot until Thorne got his sight back. Thorne asks Cress to help him with the eye drops that Erland gave him. He gives her Erland's portscreen with the instructions and she sees a tab with her full name (Crescent Moon Darnel), and finds the paternity test results. Cress says she should have told Erland that she loved him, and Thorne tells her that she didn't do anything wrong, and that she shouldn't tell anyone that she loves them unless she meant it. She puts the drops in his eyes, and Thorne tries to explain to her how he isn't really a hero, but she is more in love with him than ever, based on the rooftop kiss and all the other things he has done since they've known each other. She tells him that she had a crush on him before they met and that she thought they were destined to be together, but that now she thinks that maybe fate doesn't exist.</div>
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On Luna, Scarlet wakes up in a cage after having a nightmare about a white wolf, her grandmother's house, Wolf, and her grandmother. There's a girl in the cage with her, who tells her that her “pets” are actually her friends, but that they should keep that a secret because everyone thinks that they should be mean to their pets. Scarlet's cage is actually a part of a menagerie. The girl wants to play doctor with Scarlet but Scarlet gets upset and calls her crazy. But the girl admits that she is crazy, because she sees things that no one else sees. The girl wants to know if Jacin is okay, but Scarlet only knows Jacin as a guard who was trying to kill her and Wolf and Cinder when he and Sybil came aboard the Rampion. So Scarlet tells her that he's probably dead and that he deserved it. She gets angry at the girl, accusing her of using glamour and mind control, but the girl says she hasn't used her glamour since she was 12, and that's why she is going crazy. She leaves the cage and a guard calls her “Your highness” and Scarlet realizes that the girl is actually Winter, Levana's stepdaughter. Winter had left some candies for Scarlet, and although Scarlet doesn't trust Winter, she is so hungry that she eats one, and it makes her pain go away.</div>
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Kai wakes up on the Rampion and looks for Cinder. Cinder is in the podship dock, trying to repair Iko's escort-droid body. She has most of it repaired, but some of the internal wiring and stuff is showing. When Kai enters, Iko hides, saying, “Don't let him see me this way!” Thorne and Cress are at the door to the podship and Kai says he needs to talk to Cinder. Cinder suggests that Thorne teach Iko how to fly the ship, and they all leave Kai and Cinder alone. Kai yells at Cinder for kidnapping him when he has a responsibility on Earth, especially because they are on the verge of war. Cinder explains she has a plan to overthrow Levana and Kai asks if she has found Selene. Cinder says yes and before explaining anything else she asks him if he really thinks she brainwashed him before. He says that it never seemed like she was but that he didn't know. She tells him she never did, and then tells him that she is Princess Selene. Kai takes a bit to accept that, and then realizes that Levana also knows. He tells Cinder that if she has anything else to tell him, she needs to say it now. She tells him she can't cry, which he already knows because he saw her medical records. They talk a bit and he finally kisses her, and then she sees in her retinal display that there has been an attack on Farafrah. Lunar soldiers came in and killed civilians and Earthen soldiers alike. Cinder knows that this is to get back at her. She tells Kai that she is scared of everything, but mostly that she's turning into Levana, and Kai tells her that she isn't turning into Levana. Cress comes in and tells them that it wasn't just Farafrah that was attacked, but that Lunar ships are coming down on every continent, and all the Earthen countries have declared a state of war. Torin is acting as the leader of the Eastern Commonwealth while Kai is gone. Kai tells Cinder that she needs to tell him her plan, and she says that she is going to go to Luna and start a revolution.</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
TERMINOLOGY</h2>
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- Shell: A Lunar person who does not have any Lunar powers, but is also immune to other Lunars' powers.</div>
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-Letumosis: A plague that has been killing Earthen people for years. Lunars are supposedly immune, and were the original carriers of the disease, and they brought the disease to Earth. In this book we find out that Letumosis is actually biological warfare, and that the Lunars created the disease and its antidote to weaken the humans and to make them dependent on the Lunars' antidote.</div>
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-Thaumaturge: One of Levana's main lackeys. Thaumaturges are not part of her guard, but they're more like her advisers and assistants.</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-1143660154372274202014-11-10T05:52:00.000-08:002014-11-10T09:48:01.842-08:00Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin, #2)" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346852168l/9943270.jpg" width="217" /></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title: </b>Dark Triumph<br />
<b>Author: </b>Robin LaFevers<br />
<b>Series: </b>His Fair Assassin<br />
- <a href="http://recaptains.blogspot.nl/2013/08/grave-mercy-by-robin-lafevers.html">Grave Mercy (April 2012)</a><br />
- <i>Dark Triumph</i> (April 2013)<br />
- Mortal Heart (November 2014)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9943270-dark-triumph">Goodreads</a><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When Sybella arrived at the doorstep of St Mortain half mad with grief and despair the convent were only too happy to offer her refuge - but at a price. The sisters of this convent serve Death, and with Sybella naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, she could become one of their most dangerous weapons.
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But her assassin's skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to the life that nearly drove her mad. Her father's rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother's love is equally monstrous. But when Sybella discovers an unexpected ally she discovers that a daughter of Death may find something other than vengeance to live for... </blockquote>
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A million thanks to the incredible <a href="http://www.twitter.com/trtliterator">Ellis</a> for this incredibly detailed recap!<br />
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<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
After repeatedly proving herself to be the best assassin-spy the convent has ever had (you can’t convince me otherwise), Sybella gets sent back to the d’Albret court. Yep. That’s the bastard who tried to rape duchess Anne when she didn’t want to marry him in Grave Mercy. He’s also Sybella’s father. While trying to get inside info on his plans so that she can help the Breton court be victorious, she also receives a message that she needs to help the Beast of Waroch, who turns out to be locked up in the dungeons, escape. Things don’t go entirely to plan and Sybella ends up tagging along on the great escape, for which I am eternally grateful because it was about that time she got out of that den of sexual and physical abuse. I will forever hate the abbess of Saint Mortain for this.
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While making their way to Rennes, where the Breton court currently resides, they run into some trouble with either d’Albret’s men or the French. Unsurprisingly, they slay all. They help some peasants in the process and it turns out that Beast is somewhat of a hero of the people, and the farmers/millers/other peasants gladly pledge to join their cause. They also run into the charbonnerie, a people that live in the woods and serve the Dark Matrona. After some trust exercises, they join the SAVE BRITTANY AND ITS DUCHESS cause as well. They arrive in Rennes. Cue the heartwarming reunion of Sybella and Ismae, sisters in assassination and besties in badassitude. Sybella’s true identity gets revealed by that awful abbess. Sybella spots d’Albret men in the duchess’ guard. She gets tasked to weed them out. Beast objects. My heart shatters. Sybella is successful because of course she is.
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The abbess is the absolute worst AGAIN. Sybella gets sent back to the d’Albret court AGAIN. Beast objects AGAIN. (With good reason.) He makes it that they go the same route, charbonnerie casually tagging along. First, they rally the people. Secondly, they beat the French troops. Lastly, they go to d’Albret’s court to save Sybella’s sisters and murder the rest. They are successful. HEA.
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<h2>
What went down</h2>
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<ul>
<li>We open with Sybella getting a girl (Odette) that was wandering the halls of the despicable d’Albret court to safety because if there’s one thing you need to remember at all times, it’s that Sybella is the absolute best thing about this series, and I say that as someone who’s deeply in love with the His Fair Assassin books. </li>
<li>The ambush of Grave Mercy: Sybella warns Ismae with their psychic bond of sisterhood. Ismae and the duchess get away. Benedic de Waroch, a.k.a. the Beast of Waroch stays behind, slays some d’Albret men but then unfortunately gets captured. </li>
<li>Sybella is discovered by her sick pervert of a half brother (though technically they’re not related because she’s a daughter of Saint Mortain). This is Julian and he’s slightly less awful than her other, older sick and despicable pervert of a half brother, Pierre. Sybella puts her game face on. Julian makes clear that he’ll protect her but that this is a kindness she’ll have to repay later. I hate him. </li>
<li>Sybella spots her first two marques and IT’S ABOUT TIME. She was getting very annoyed that none of these horrible people were bearing marques because that means she can’t kill them. </li>
<li>She decides to investigate, going on the logic that maybe the marques are hidden. She enlists a maid (Tilde, sister of Odette) to let her in d’Albret’s room, then hides behind a curtain while d’Albret takes his bath. Being the scum of the earth that he is, he tries to rape Tilde. Sybella almost betrays her hiding spot because she WILL kill him, marque or not. Luckily, they get interrupted by madame Dinan, d’Albret’s sister and former governess of duchess Anne. It’s revealed that these two have been in an incestual relationship for a long time. </li>
<li>That night, Julian comes to Sybella’s room and uses a secret code to let her know it’s time to pay up in sexual favours. We hate him. Sybella pretends to be asleep and never answers. We love her. </li>
<li>We meet Sybella’s ladies in waiting, Jamette and Tephanie. Jamette is the kind of girl oldschool Kanye West would write songs about (she takes my moNEY when I’m in neeeeeed) and a spy for the patriarchal supremacy of the d’Albret court. More about Tephanie soon. Also, Jamette thinks there’s a ghost in the castle. Hmmmmm. </li>
<li>Sybella poisons the two marqued barons. This pleases her. The convents sends her a message that the Beast of Waroch is locked up in the dungeons. She is to free him.</li>
<li>D’Albret enlists Sybella to get information from one of his courtiers. While she’s doing so, using her powers of seduction, Julian jumps from behind one of the curtains and kills the courtier in a jealous rage. He asserts once and for all that Sybella is HIS. I’m not having it and neither is Sybella. </li>
<li>Sybella orders Tephanie to sleep in her bed so that when Julian come a-knocking, she’ll have an excuse to refuse, since Julian is one of those douchebag no means yes types. When they wake up the next morning, Sybella and Tephanie have a moment. We all take a moment to mourn the fact that LaFevers didn’t take this further. So does Tephanie, by the looks of it. Note: seriously missed opportunity for an epic hook-up. </li>
<li>Sybella goes to look for the ghost, who turns out to be the Beast of Waroch. Double win. He has one guard, who “looks like a small gnome from a hearth tale”. This is important. Being the strategical mastermind that she is, she doesn’t impulsively free him. Instead, she comes up with a plan that won’t trage back to her. </li>
<li>Tephanie has taken up permanent residence in Sybella’s bed. Such it, Julian. </li>
<li>Sybella frees the Beast of Waroch. The jailor helps her (!!) Logistical problem: even with the unexpected help, Beast is still gigantic. She decides to speak to his loyalty and battle lust because this is what OTPs are made of even when they’ve just met and one is barely conscious and the other terrified for her life. Ah, young love. </li>
<li>They run into some guards. Sybella foes all Celaena Sardothien on their ass. Apparently Beast has had enough of Sybella’s truth bombs and (accidentally?) knocks her out. </li>
<li>(Why do I ship this?) </li>
<li>Logistical problem: they loaded Sybella on the escape cart, even though she’d planned to stay behind so SHE COULD KILL D’ALBRET. YOU PROMISED YOU STUPID ABBESS. </li>
<li>They find a lodge. Sybella tends to Beast’s wounds. They become acquainted - verbally. Sybella discloses that she’s one of Ismae’s colleagues. Keep in mind that Beast was the one to say in Grave Mercy that they say that “to lie with a handmaiden of Death is the sweetest end imagineable”. They smile at each other like fools. (Confirmation of my previous statemen tbh.) Note: missed opportunity for an epic hook-up. </li>
<li>Beast discloses that his sister was d’Albret’s sixth (and currently, last) wife. Sybella is SHOCKED. (Check the first word of chapter 17 if you don’t believe me.) Through some internal memory disclosure it becomes obvious that Alyse de Waroch was Sybella’s favourite stepmom. Then, secrets. Beast thanks Sybella for saving him. He also knows she would have killed him mercifully to save him from d’Albret’s torture. Note: missed opportunity for an epic hook-up. </li>
<li>D’Albret’s men catch up to them. Beast faints. Sybella slay all. They argue about the logistics of getting Beast to Rennes when clearly he has a fainting issue. Unbearable sexual tension when she fixed him up before they ride out. Sadly not that kind of riding. Revelation that the gnome-gargoyle used to be Beast’s squire and Alyse’s personal protector once she became d’Albret’s wife. Just another victim of the horrendous d’Albret household. </li>
<li>They come upon some millers/peasants in trouble with d’Albret’s men. They recognise Sybella but she kills them before they can say a word. Then they bump into some Frencg harassing other peasants. Beast is like WE HAVE TO HELP HIM. Sybella is all MATE. WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. (Considering that this takes place in France, it probably would have been mec instead of mate. I hereby close this impromptu lesson on anachronistic conversational French.) to which Beast says “Sybella, my raven-haired beauty” (he doesn’t say this but he’s thinking it. With his loins. I know this even though the entire book is written in Sybella’s POV.) “we don’t just fight to protect the rich, privileged elite. We fight FOR THE PEOPLE.” </li>
<li>Beast decides to rally the people and start a second army to protect Brittany against the combined enemy of d’Albret and the French. The battle lusty boys they saved a few pages ago are impressed and volunteer as tributes. Their mother says no. For now. </li>
<li>Sybella, Beast and Yannic (the gargoyle-gnome) run into the charbonnerie. After an initial ambush, they bow down to the infamous Beast of Waroch and his legendary hatred of the French, because they also feel this on a deep and spiritual level. They let them stay the night and quickly become besties. They join the cause and ride with them to Rennes. </li>
<li>Arrival in Rennes: Sybella takes it upon her to get them inside the castle. While waiting at the palace entrance, she overhears a couple arguing about the sketchy individuals that surround the duchess. The woman votes for them to be murdered. Instantly recognising Ismae, Sybella is overjoyed. Duval doesn’t trust Sybella when he sees her but who cares, and certainly not Ismae, who shoves him aside to go tackle-hug her sister in assassination and bestie in badassitude. </li>
<li>Beast and Uval, also long lost besties, meet again. Beast wonders how it is that Duval is alive, since last he heard of him, he was dying of severe poisoning. Hmmmmmmm, I wonder what happened there. </li>
<li>REPEATED CONFIRMATION THAT SYBELLA TAUGHT HER FELLOW NUNS IN TRAINING HOW TO KISS THIS MAKES THE UNREQUITED TEPHANIE SHIP THAT MUCH SADDER </li>
<li>Sybella sneaks into the convent of Saint Brigantia because she doesn’t trust those nuns to take proper care of Beast. She planned to sneak in undetected and to just check up on him real quick, but one of the nuns catches her. Apparently Beast calls for Alyse in his feverish dreams. Sybella is a little disappointed it’s not her he calls for but she understands. *thud* Turns out she’s the one he calls for when he’s awake *thud* *thud* </li>
<li>She goes to sit by him and takes his hand. He wakes up and tells her he knew she'd miss him. She denies this. He doesn't believe her. I am in pain. Rude banter. SHE FALLS ASLEEP EVEN THOUGH SHE DIDN'T MEAN TO BECAUSE SHE FEELS SAFE WITH HIM AND I'M CRYING SO HARD YOU GUYS. Early morning wake-up and walk of something to the castle. </li>
<li>Sybella becomes instantly protective of the duchess. The duchess is instantly appreciative of Sybella’s service. Then that bitch of an abbess ruins everything by revealing Sybella's true identity WITHOUT HER CONSENT AND ALSO THIS FUCKS UP MY SHIP TREMENDOUSLY BUT THE FIRST IS MORE IMPORTANT. Sybella needs some non-courtly air and runs into the city. A man tries to seduce her. He almost gets intimately acquainted with her knife instead. She hears screaming and finds two of d'Albret's men assaulting some of the charbonnerie. She decides that the best way to mend a broken heart is to kill some disgusting products of the patriarchy. </li>
<li>Sybella and Ismae have a moment. Ismae reveals that she's met Mortain and that he's a pretty cool mec, and also that the marques are more of a warning of who's to die than an order. Meaning that even assholes not bearing a marque - COUGH COUGH D'ALBRET - deserve to be killed </li>
<li>There is a meeting or a party and Sybella spots Yannic, whom she considers to be Beast's spy so she decides to attach herself to the prettiest man in the room to make Beast jealous. Sybella proposes that she weed out the d'Albret men who've mixed themselves in the duchess' guard. Beast doesn't want her to. She challenges him, asking if he thinks she isn't capable. He throws back that he damn well knows how capable she is, but that, and I quote "I do not know whether the costs would be worth the risks." Terribly gross sobbing on the other side of the page. </li>
<li>ANNITH IS PLANNING TO ESCAPE THE CONVENT. YOU GO GLENN COCO. </li>
<li>That stupid abbess gives Sybella a new order. She is to return to d'Albret's court and kill him. Sybella refuses. The abbess threatens to send Ismae instead. When Sybella reminds her they'd recognise Ismae, she threatens to finally send out Annith on her assignment. Sybella gives in to protect her sisters. I weep. </li>
<li>Duchess Anne marries the Holy Roman emperor by proxy. Beast is outraged that the abbess told Sybella to go back to the d'Albret court, so he decided to combine their missions, with the charbonnerie by their side. HE KNOCKS HER OUT AGAIN AND IS REALLY SORRY ABOUT IT BUT IT WAS THE ONLY WAY AND I SHOULD HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS, RIGHT? BUT THEN PUTS HER IN FRONT OF HIM ON HIS HORSE WHERE HE CAN PROTECT HER AT ALL TIMES SAVE ME BARRY </li>
<li>They go pick up the peasants that had pledged to join their cause. Sybella tries to escape to finish her assignment alone when no one is looking. Beast stops her. FINALLY WE GET A KISS. Sybella instructs the children. They give her lip first but soon enough they all - rightfully - worship her. </li>
<li>They go to battle against the French. Sybella spots a handful of marks on her companions. She tries to arrange it so that they escape death. Some of them die regardless.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
The troops of the people have ended up in the neighbourhood of the castle where Sybella sent her sisters to keep them safe. Turns out Julian stopped by, took them with him to Nantes and plans to blackmail Sybella's return this way. They decide to spend the night at the castle and ride out in the morning. Sybella tells Beast of the years of sexual abuse she's endured at the hand of her father and brothers. They visit the grave of d'Albret's six wives. There they discover a seventh grave.
<br />
<br />
Flashback time: right before she escaped to the convent of Saint Mortain, Sybella had a daughter. Realising that the baby wasn't Julian's - as he had hoped, that sick bastard - d'Albret breaks her neck. Alyse tried to take the baby from him, but he pushed her off and she hit her head on a chair, a blow that killed her. Disgusted with the wickedness running in her family, Sybella tried to hang herself. That's when old Nonne told her she was sired by Mortain, which made her run off to the convent.
<br />
<br />
Sybella wakes in the middle of the night and has her meeting with Death. He confirms Ismae's theory that the marques merely show who will die soon, not who has to die. If she really isn't supposed to kill someone, the blade will miss, the choking session will be interrupted, the cup with poisoned will be knocked over, etc. Later, the opportunity for an epic hook-up is finally acted upon. Sadly, it's fade to black. BUT I'LL TAKE IT.
<br />
<br />
Sybella visits the convent of Saint Brigantia to borrow a habit because apparently dressing like a nun will get you in anywhere. Alert the night clubs. The abbess shows her a secret passage that leads to the castle of Nantes. Sybella, Beast and Yannic enter the castle this way. It's Tephanie, her old lover (please excuse the intrusion of headcanon), who kept her sisters safe and prayed for Sybella coming to save them. Hmmmmm. They try to escape. Jamette ruins everything just by being there, alerting the court and shit. Beast carries Charlotte and Louise off to safety. Then Julian comes to ruin things some more but Sybella tells him once and for all that NO MEANS NO and that he needs to keep his sick perversions to himself.
<br />
<br />
Marshal Rieux (he was relevant once upon a time) is no longer, probably murdered because let's be real, this is the d'Albret court. Sybella gets locked in the dungeon until d'Albret returns from brokering an alliance with the French court. Just a general impression: everything is supremely terrible. Upon discovering that Sybella is not his bio daughter, d'Albret decides to make her his seventh wife because he thinks mixing his bloodline with Death's will make him unstoppable and also he's the most disgusting thing to walk this earth. Julian comes to her defence but oh look at that, a wild marque appears. Moment of being severely conflicted because you did good, for once, Julian, but you're still a sick bastard. RIP, I guess. Jamette decides to be decent for once and slips Sybella a knife, but d'Albret decides to end this once and for all by killing Sybella. Julian jumps in front of her and gets stabbed through with a sword. Turns out Sybella is some sort of misericorde herself, since she releases his soul by kissing his brow?
<br />
<br />
Beast shows up. He has Sybella's knives with him. Everybody dies. (Except for Madame Dinan and I think d'Albret was left with his guts spilling out and I'm not sure if his soul will ever be released because Mortain has promised that the underworld/afterlife will be a D'ALBRET FREE ZONE. And Pierre wasn't there so he'll probably be the one in cahoots with the French now. Pfff. The rest of them, they all dead.) The charbonnerie start bombing the castle. Sybella and Beast escape, jumping from the castle wall and continuing to be the wild, free, loving spirits that they are. HEAs all around.
<br />
<br />
<h2>
anything else</h2>
<b>handmaiden to death</b>: the assassin nuns who have already assassinated and thus finished their training, eg. Sybella and Ismae<br />
<b>novitiate (of Mortain)</b>: the assassin nuns who have not yet had the chance/order to assassinate and are most likely very bitter about this, eg. Annith<br />
<b>marque</b>: a black mark that appears on a person’s body when they are to die soon. Some handmaidens can see them since birth (Ismae). Others only after having drunk the Tears of Mortain (Sybella).<br />
<b>misericorde</b>: a magic knife that takes just one nick for a soul to leave a dying person’s body<br />
<b>Tears of Mortain</b>: a potion that enhances the novitiates’ supernatural abilities<br />
<b>charbonnerie</b>: a people of charcoal-burners that serve the Dark Matrona and live in the woods between Nantes and Rennes<br />
<b>Guérande</b>: former Breton court<br />
<b>Nantes</b>: former Breton court, now the d’Albret court and number one portal to Hell.<br />
<b>Rennes</b>: current Breton court
<br />
<br />
<b>Gods and saints</b>
<br />
<br />
General note that all these are all old gods and goddesses, but in order for the Breton people to continue practising their fate, they had to be reimagined as saints.
<br />
<br />
<b>Dea Matrona</b>: the Goddess<br />
<b>The Dark Mother/Dark Matrona</b>: the fierce and loving goddess of the fallen, the scarred, the wounded and the castoffs. She rules over the places where life rises up out of darkness and decay. She is goddess of that last bit of hope when all hope is lost. Not accepted by the Church because they saw her as competition for Jesus Christ.<br />
<b>Saint Amourna</b>: daughter of the Dea Matrona. The goddess/saint of gentle love.<br />
<b>Saint Arduinna</b>: daughter of the Dea Matrona. Protector of virgins, goddess/saint of hunting and also love. From what I understand, her sister is the goddess of gentle, upbeat, perfectly fine love, while Arduinna has a bit of an edge to her. So maybe lust, wicked/intense/secret love?<br />
<b>Saint Brigantia</b>: patron saint of healing and medicine<br />
<b>Saint Camulos</b>: patron saint of war and battle lust<br />
<b>Saint Mortain</b>: patron saint of death and badassitude<br />
<b>Saint Mer</b>: patron saint of the sea. Ultrafemme and strictly matriarchal. (Think: black widows.)<br />
<b>Saint Salonius</b>: patron saint of mistakes</div>
Judithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10169574717441851611noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-25665680455889814842014-11-03T15:18:00.001-08:002014-11-03T15:18:31.436-08:00The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2NvrRCP6gbq8TLnfXvFY4Sok9mdk6vwXWUrZirqQGoGHuP-KuA0cECkdIlpmiO6PmOqnuKzF9BADwO9tdAl8QvEQ9RvFbS8tXvrt3H42Obe_MgB8Q2INgKrVOR-dtvbAWQp2-ZiWWoU/s1600/mara+dyer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK2NvrRCP6gbq8TLnfXvFY4Sok9mdk6vwXWUrZirqQGoGHuP-KuA0cECkdIlpmiO6PmOqnuKzF9BADwO9tdAl8QvEQ9RvFbS8tXvrt3H42Obe_MgB8Q2INgKrVOR-dtvbAWQp2-ZiWWoU/s1600/mara+dyer.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<h2>
<span style="background-color: white;">The Basics</span></h2>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Title:</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"> The Evolution of Mara Dyer</span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Author: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Michelle Hodkin</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Series: </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Mara Dyer #2</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">- </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"><a href="http://recaptains.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-unbecoming-of-mara-dyer-by-michelle.html" target="_blank">The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer</a></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;"> </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">(September 2011)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">- <i>The Evolution of Mara Dyer</i> (October 2012)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">- The Retribution of Mara Dyer (November 2014)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px;">Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13643567-the-evolution-of-mara-dyer" style="background-color: white; color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;">Goodreads</a><h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mara Dyer once believed she could run from her past.<br />She can’t.<br /><br />She used to think her problems were all in her head.<br />They aren’t.<br /><br />She couldn’t imagine that after everything she’s been through, the boy she loves would still be keeping secrets.<br />She’s wrong.<br /><br />In this gripping sequel to The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, the truth evolves and choices prove deadly. What will become of Mara Dyer next?</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h2>
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jude is alive and Mara still thinks she's going mad. She has visions of India, presumably of her grandmother, and Jude kidnaps her and she finds out that she has special powers, along with a bunch of other teenagers. That was a tiny summary. I'm proud. </div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<div>
<div>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara wakes up in a psychiatric ward where she has been involuntarily committed. Dr. West explains that Mara has been telling everyone that she caused the asylum (from the beginning of book one) to collapse, and that she killed her friends along with her ex-boyfriend, Jude.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara is convinced that Jude is alive. She tells her brother, Daniel, this and he's like "nah, your hallucination had hands but they found Jude's hands in the asylum ruins". </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara's mother tells Mara that her mother - Mara's grandmother, for those of you following along - suffered from a mental illness and killed herself when Mara was three days old. Her grandmother was suffering from hallucinations, nightmares, etc. etc. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Noah goes to see Mara in hospital, and then sneaks out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara is allowed to go home. It's all going very well until she wakes up one morning to find "FOR CLAIRE" writtin in blood on the bathroom mirror. This is after she finds a dead cat outside her back door. Was there any need?!</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara goes to HOP - Horizons Outpatient Program - and is surprised to find her friend Jamie there. They have a meeting, and a slightly creepy girl called Phoebe hands Mara a photo. It's of Mara, in bed last night, and her eyes have been scratched out. NOPE. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara is given some pills, which I'm not sure was a good idea, and Phoebe admits to scratching the photo.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Kells starts to interrogate Mara on the night at the asylum when Jude assaulted her. Mara blacks out.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara has a flashback/hallucination about India. Then her grandmother's doll, which Mara now has, disappears, because it's creepy as fork and is probably possessed. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara goes to Daniel for his opinion on the entire situation, although she pretends she's asking questions ~for a friend (for a character that she's "writing about"). Daniel concludes that the character (i.e. Mara) is possessed because she played with a Ouija board and that's when all the weird stuff started happening.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara and Daniel go off on a double date with their other halves. Noah and Mara discover something about a church and a priest. On the way home, the car hits a crow. Then a bunch of crows (a murder of them, ha) fly off into the distance.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Noah stays over the night, but in a separate room. Mara sneaks into the guest bedroom to sleep with him. Totally innocently, mind you. Much to everyone's disappointment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara falls asleep and has another of her weird flashback visions. A girl, whose family seems to have adopted 'Mara' (who seems to be Mara's grandmother... this is getting very complicated), gives her a doll. Mara sees an old woman who starts screaming Mara's name.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Noah wakes Mara up because she's sleepwalking. Mara decides to go outside and throw out the creepy doll because NO ONE WANTS IT IN THE HOUSE. When she wakes up, she finds it inside again. Mara tells Noah that she thinks Jude put it there. Noah is like "DUDE YOU GOT IT YOURSELF I THOUGHT YOU WERE AWAKE BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU MADE A MISTAKE OHMYGOD" and all the readers are like "I AM GOING TO CRY MYSELF TO SLEEP TONIGHT".</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara decides to burn the doll. THANK YOU JESUS. In the ashes, she finds a charm that matches Noah's, which he never takes off. He found his in his mother's things. There was also a bit of paper but they let it burn.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Brooke at HOP asks the outpatients to take out their journals. Mara doesn't remember receiving one, so she uses a notebook. In her sketchbook, she finds a note that says "I see you". Phoebe admits to putting it there, although she didn't write it. Her boyfriend did. Allegedly.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara and Noah find a photo of Noah's mother and Mara's grandmother. WELL. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Noah suggests that Mara might have special powers like telekinesis. She tries to move a pill bottle with her mind. Obviously nothing happens because Noah's theories aren't very good. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They go to a fortune teller at a carnival. Madam Rose tells Mara that she must leave Noah, who is destined for greatness, or she "will love him to ruin". Whatever that means. Mara cries and Noah goes to Madam Rose - Roslyn - and bribes her to tell him what's going on. Apparently some other tall dark and handsome guy paid Roslyn to say it, and then not to say anything. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara sleepwalks again and wakes up in the kitchen after having a dream about holding Noah's heart in her hand. Literally. Noah looks a bit freaked out, which is understandable because Mara has likely been doing some creepy stuff. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara finds Noah's notebook and reads his theory: Mara can manipulate events like Noah can manipulate cells. It also says that Mara was holding a knife and smiling like a creepy thing in the kitchen that morning.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Noah gives Mara a jewelry box and they have a cute date and also an argument but mostly a date.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Dr. Kells wants Mara to go on a HOP retreat. It doesn't seem like a good idea to me but whatever.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara has another vision where she needs to free some animals. She is an animal version of Spartacus.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara finds her missing HOP journal in her brother's room. She has written "Help me." in it. She calls Noah to tell him. Then she is casually watching some footage from the asylum when she is kidnapped by Jude. He takes her to the water and then cuts her wrists - horizontally, not vertically, which means he doesn't want to kill her. The water is full of dead fish. Ew.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Mara is hospitalised. Again. She's taken to some compound. Noah gets himself put in there too. Mara is meant to meet him but she sleeps through it. At 4AM, she and Phoebe, who is now her roommate WOOHOO, go to the bathroom. In the morning, Phoebe screams and accuses Mara of trying to hurt her.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<h2>
how did it end?</h2>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Noah and Mara break into Dr. Kells' office and go through her files with Jamie. Dr. Kells has been recording Mara for weeks, and there's a recording of Jude in Mara's room. EW.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Phoebe is found dead in her bed. Noah and Mara try to get out but the doors are all locked. All of the adults seem to have disappeared, along with most of the teenagers. Noah and Mara go outside, and find that Jude has tied a bunch of the teens up. He starts to torture Stella to provoke Mara. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Stella can read minds. She tells Mara that Jude thinks that she (Mara, I told you this is complicated) can bring back the dead. Jude has been trying to provoke her to do it. Noah attacks Jude and hurts him. Mara figures out that Jude can sort of suck the life out of other people to heal himself when he is in pain. Mara says she'll go with Jude, although she also says she can't raise the dead.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mara starts to leave with Jude and then sees Noah and changes her mind. She brings the building down around her. She feels Noah next to her, but she blacks out. She wakes up drugged with Dr. Kells. Dr. Kells shows her a chart with all the teenagers with a special gene that gives them special abilities. Noah's chart says he's deceased. HAAAA YEAH OK STOP LYING. Dr. Kells tells Mara that she has been given truth serum. Mara vows to create hell when she breaks free. AW YEAH.</div>
</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-26540992006473960822014-11-02T14:17:00.001-08:002014-11-02T14:17:34.002-08:00The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin<br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img alt="The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1)" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1336655755l/11408650.jpg" width="212" /></div>
<br />
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer<br />
<b>Author: </b>Michelle Hodkin<br />
<b>Series: </b>Mara Dyer #1<br />
- <i>The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer </i>(September 2011)<br />
- The Evolution of Mara Dyer (October 2012)<br />
- The Retribution of Mara Dyer (November 2014)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11408650-the-unbecoming-of-mara-dyer">Goodreads</a><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote>
Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.<br />
It can. <br />
<br />
She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. <br />
There is.<br />
<br />
She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. <br />
She's wrong.</blockquote>
<br /><a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
Mara Dyer and her family move to Florida after her friends die trying to freak into an asylum. There, Mara meets Noah Shaw. She also keeps hallucinating that she sees Jude, her old boyfriend who died in the asylum, and death keeps happening to people who are terrible to her. Turns out Mara can (maybe) murder people with her mind, although we don't know for sure because this book is a giant mind fuck and who even knows what is real. Oh, and Noah, who Mara falls in love with, turns out to be able to heal people with his mind. And then some girl gets murdered and Mara's dad has to defend the murderer in trial and her little brother gets kidnapped by the murderer and Mara kills alligators and the murderer gets released from jail and Mara is insane and her dad gets shot and Jude is alive and WHAT EVEN. Okay, so I can't really capture this book in a short summary. Please read my real summary below to find out what actually happened.<br />
<br />
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>The story starts with a note from "Mara Dyer", claiming that this is not her real name, but that her lawyer told her to choose a nickname. We learned that Mara is blamed for some murders.</li>
<li>Mara is at her best friend Rachel's birthday party, where Rachel, her new friend Claire (whom Mara hates) and Mara are playing with an Ouija board. That never ends well. Rachel asks how she will die and the board spells "murder" and "Mara". Oops.</li>
<li>Six months later, Mara wakes up in a hospital bed, where her parents tell her she's been in an accident. Apparently, she was in an old building (an asylum) that collapsed, and killed Rachel, Claire and Claire's brother Jude.</li>
<li>Mara and her family (she has an older brother, Daniel, and a younger brother, Joseph) move to Florida to get away. </li>
<li>At her new school, Mara meets bad boy Noah Shaw, mean girl Anna, and Jamie, who is awesome. Her first class, she hallucinates and falls, causing her nose to bleed. When she goes to clean up, she doesn't see herself in the mirror, but Claire. Later that morning, she hears Jude's laugh and sees him as well. This is getting creepy.</li>
<li>A news report on TV shows that the bodies of Rachel and Claire had been recovered, but that they were unable to find Jude. Only the news report isn't real but another hallucination, because some other girl, Jordana Palmer, is missing instead.</li>
<li>The next day in class, Noah and Mara fall in insta-love/hate/UST.</li>
<li>In a flashback, Jude and Mara get ready to go to the asylum.</li>
<li>Mara finds an abused dog and wants to save her, but the owner nearly beats her up over it. Mara thinks about what it would be like if he would die. Then, when she goes back after school, she finds out that the man has died exactly the way she imaged it. Dun dun dun.</li>
<li>The police find Mara and ask her some questions, after which she overhears that they're going to kill the dog. So naturally, she sneaks in and steals it before they notice. Then she runs into Noah again, and he takes her to take the dog to the vet (who happens to be his mom). They name the dog Mabel.</li>
<li>Another flashback shows Mara and Jude arriving at the asylum. It also shows that Mara and Jude are in some sort of relationship and that Mara doesn't want to kiss him, but he doesn't take rejection very well. He's just getting lovelier. They get in through the basement. Apparently Mara only went along with it to win Rachel back.</li>
<li>Noah asks Mara out but she refuses, but then he nearly kisses her. Also, they find out that Jordana, the missing girl, has been murdered, apparently eaten by alligators.</li>
<li>When Daniel and Mara get home, they find out that their dad is defending Jordana's murderer, Leon Lassiter, in trial. Later, they get ready to go to a party together, but Mara sees Claire in the mirror again. Mara wears her grandma's earrings to the party. (This is important.) </li>
<li>Mara leaves the party almost immediately after arriving, but when she comes home, the entire hallway is different. The doors and pictures are on the other side of the wall. WTF. When she looks again later, everything is back to normal. When she gets to her room, a box of stuff is in the middle, with a picture of Rachel. </li>
<li>She wants to take a bath, but doesn't remember turning off the faucet, and when she gets back the bath is overflowing. Her earrings are at the bottom of the tub. When she tries to get them, she burns her arm. Double WTF. Later, she finds out that her earrings have been in her ears the entire time.</li>
<li>Obviously, Mara's mom is making her see a psychiatrist. Later at school, Anna steals her sketchbook which has a drawing of Noah, and Noah gets it back for her. In return, he makes her go out on a date with him.</li>
<li>Fun time again when Mara thinks to see maggots in her food and then Jude behind her.</li>
<li>Noah picks Mara up for their date. They go to his ginormous mansion of a house. It turns out the dog, Mabel, is now scared of Mara. Noah then tells her the story of how his real mother was stabbed at a protest and he was there with her. </li>
<li>They go out for dinner, and Mara sees Jude again. They then go to a gallery, and Mara gets another flashback, where they enter the asylum and Jude thinks that's a perfect place to make out. Real life Mara faints and it turns out Noah already knew what happened to her because he asked Daniel.</li>
<li>Noah and Mara go to school together, acting like a couple and everyone hates Mara for it.</li>
<li>It's time for exams and Mara kicks ass in her cruel Spanish teacher's class and talks back to her, for which the teacher sends her out of the room. Jamie records Mara's perfect Spanish though, in case the teacher wants to punish her.</li>
<li>Jamie tells Mara about how Noah used Jamie's sister because Jamie went out with Noah's sister. Then, Jamie sticks up for Mara to mean girl Anna and her pet Aiden, and they get Jamie expelled. Noah beats up Aiden. </li>
<li>Mara goes to the doctor to get her burned arm (which was in a cast) checked out and it turns out it has completely healed.</li>
<li>Mara gets an F in Spanish and wishes she would choke on her own tongue. Then, when Mara gets to the Spanish classroom, it turns out that that is exactly what happened.</li>
<li>We find out Mara is supposed to be taking pills but she hasn't.</li>
<li>Are you ready for shit to hit the fan? Joseph is supposed to be at a friend's house but then Noah shows up at Mara's house saying he isn't there and that they need to go find him. Apparently someone took him. They go to the everglades, a swamp where there's alligators. Lovely. </li>
<li>They cross the swamp and alligators try to attack them but apparently Mara fights them off with her mind. (She wishes them away, and later, we find out that they died as well.) They arrive at a couple of sheds and find Joseph in one of them, tied up. They take him and run. Nobody remembers after it happened, so it has probably been another hallucination.</li>
<li>In another flashback, Jude wants to have his way with Mara in the asylum but she doesn't. He tries to rape her and she wishes him dead and... we know how that ends.</li>
<li>Mara decides she needs to remember what exactly happened, and Noah takes her to a hypnotist/some kind of priest. The priest acts very rude to Mara and obviously wants her to go away. Clearly, he knows more about what's happening to her. Noah pays him and the priest then gives Mara some weird drink to help her remember.</li>
<li>Mara wakes up in Noah's bed because apparently she passed out. Then they make out, but while they're going at it, Noah's lips turn blue and he is dying. Mara realizes that she is the one who killed all these people and for a second, she has killed Noah too, but then he wakes up and nothing happened and what the fuck. According to Noah, they didn't kiss but just fell asleep together.</li>
<li>Mara tells Noah everything that has been happening to her, and Noah tells her that he heard her before they met (in his vision, Mara said "get them out"). He explains that he has seen two others before and that they both died because he didn't get to them in time. He also saw someone with a Rolex take Joseph, but they saved him in time. So the hallucination was real after all. Noah says that he thinks he can heal people, that he healed Mara's arm, and that he can hear everyone's physical reactions.</li>
<li>The next day, Noah and Mara try to go back to the priest, but his house has disappeared, because nothing makes sense in this damn book.</li>
<li>Noah takes Mara to the zoo to kill some insects, but Mara doesn't want to kill anything and Noah forces her and she feels threatened, so naturally, she kills everything in the shed.</li>
</ul>
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
Noah takes Mara out of school because something is happening to her father's case. Pictures show that Jordana was murdered near the sheds where they found Joseph. Also, Leon Lassiter, her father's client, was seen wearing a Rolex, which means he took Joseph. Mara's father was trying to drop the case to spare Mara, which made the Lassiter kidnap Joseph.<br />
<br />
Lassiter is about to get out of jail, so they rush to the courthouse, but it turns out they're too late and he's already gone. Mara decides she wants to kill him for hurting her family. When she sees Lassiter, she is at the verge of mentally shooting him when Jordana Palmer's mother shoots at the Lassiter. Only she doesn't hit him, but Mara's father.<br />
<br />
Mara's dad is in the hospital and Mara decides she has to turn herself in, that she has to be punished for murdering all those people. But when she arrives at the police station, she doesn't get to talk to a police offers because JUDE SHOWS UP AND HE IS ALIVE AND REAL AND OH MY GOD WHAT EVEN.Judithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10169574717441851611noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-27397171032753704752014-10-18T00:05:00.000-07:002014-10-18T00:05:00.479-07:00The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img alt="The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389804901l/16429619.jpg" width="213" /></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title:</b> The Kiss of Deception<br />
<b>Author: </b>Mary E. Pearson<br />
<b>Series: </b>The Remnant Chronicles #1<br />
- <i>The Kiss of Deception</i> (July 2014)<br />
- The Heart of Betrayal (2015)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16429619-the-kiss-of-deception">Goodreads</a><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A princess must find her place in a reborn world. She flees on her wedding day. She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection. She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father. She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
<br />
<br />
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
<br />
<br />
Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Thanks to the incredible <a href="http://iteachya.blogspot.com/">Katie from I Teach YA</a> for providing us with yet another recap. She's a real superhero!</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
Princess Arabella Celestine Idris Jezelia, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan (Lia for short, thank goodness) is in a bit of a pickle. Her parents expect her to follow tradition and seal an alliance they have made with a neighboring kingdom. To complete this monumental task she simply has to marry the prince of Dalbreck. But Lia has reservations. She fears the suffocating duty placed upon her, and really that fact that she has never even met this prince has put all sorts of unsavory notions into her head about both his possible looks and demeanor. So she conspires with her lady in waiting, Pauline, to escape the palace. They set out for Pauline’s hometown of Terravin where they are employed by innkeeper Berdi and start their life of simplicity. <br />
<br />
This lasts for all of .2 seconds because no one is about to let a princess disappear into nothingness! The prince of Dalbreck is hot on her tail and trails Lia to to the town of Terravin where he rents a room anonymously in Berdi’s inn. Then to make matters worse, there is an assassin sent by the Komizar, ruler of the rival kingdom of Venda who happens to also occupy a room at the inn. LOVE TRIANGLE! Both Rafe and Kaden capture Lia’s attention. But it is Rafe, the mysterious assassin whom Lia eventually falls for. Unfortunately it is not a match made to be. Lia’s brother Walther comes to her after his wife is murdered by barbarians bereft and inconsolable. Lia realizes that it is her duty to return to her home in Civica, marry the prince and reset the alliance that could save her kingdom from war. She says a final goodbye to Rafe, never to see him again. Upon her return trip to Civica, Lia and Pauline run into Kaden who proceeds to kidnap her…WHAT WHAT?! KADEN IS THE ASSASSIN! Kaden and his troup of Vendan spies travel across the continent with their princess in tow. <br />
<br />
The only thing keeping Lia alive is that Kaden has told the others that Lia has “the gift” (which she may or may not). Lia is seriously pissed about being duped (me too sister) and plans to escape at every turn. The book ends with the gang entering Venda and Rafe (who has been trying to intercept the group the entire time) acting as an emissary for the prince (stay with me folks, he’s the real prince) delivering a message for the Komizar.<br />
<br />
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>The novel starts with Princess Lia receiving her wedding kavah (an intricate henna-esq drawing on her back celebrating the union between two kingdoms, Dalbrek and Morrighan). </li>
<li>But Lia does NOT want to end up like her mother, married to some stodgy old prince whom she has never even met. </li>
<li>So Lia conspires with her maid Pauline to escape her fate and the two girls run away to Pauline’s girlhood home of Terravin, a sleepy seaside vista. </li>
<li>There they are greeted by Pauline’s aunt Berdi who owns an inn in town and agrees to house and employ the girls. </li>
<li>Lia enjoys the simple life that the village offers. But life is about to get a bit more tricky. </li>
<li>One evening while serving dinner, Lia’s attention narrows on two handsome new patrons. Rafe is mysterious, dark and tanned. Kaden has light hair and warm brown eyes. Enter the ubiquitous love triangle. </li>
<li>No one in the entire kingdom is able to find Lia tucked in this tiny seaside village (seriously?). But her brother Walther manages to track her down and tells her that the Scholar and the Chancellor are extra mad at her. Apparently, Lia did not leave the palace empty handed. She stole an ancient book from a hidden compartment in the Scholars private office. Lia has no idea what it says nor why it is important but it clearly is if he has let his anger known even to Walther. Walther also tells Lia that he and his wife Greta are expecting a child! </li>
<li>Before Walther leaves, he informs Lia that Pauline’s love, Mikael, is a no-good soldier and two-timing scoundrel. This weighs heavily on Lia as she does not want to hurt her poor friend’s feelings and matters are complicated because Pauline is pregnant with Mikael’s child. In the end, Lia chooses to tell Pauline that Mikael has died rather than hurt her friends feelings. Needless to say, Pauline is devastated. </li>
<li>The village of Terravin is preparing for the summer festival of remembrance, a time when the entire kingdom celebrates the deliverance of their people into prosperous land and food by a small girl named Morrighan. Lia travels to the city to purchase a few things for the festival but on her return trip, she is captured by a hired assassin. Luckily, Rafe & Kaden have been following her and Kaden shoots an arrow through the assassin. While Rafe disposes of the body, Kaden carries Lia back to Berdi’s. </li>
<li>The girls observe the holiday of remembrance through holy rituals as well as festivities. This includes a log wrestling match that both Kaden and Rafe compete in (to the thrill of both the girls and the crowd). </li>
<li>When they return to the inn, the frustrating relationship between herself and Rafe boils over and Lia storms out of dinner. Rafe follows and Lia yells at him to leave, but as with all spicy relationships, this little tiff ends in a passionate reconciliation smooch! </li>
<li>Unfortunately Lia’s happiness is short lived when her brother returns in a fitful state. He was traveling with his wife, Greta, when a band of rebels attacked the bridge they were about to cross, killing everyone in their party including his wife and their unborn child. Walther is crazed and Lia is devastated. She realizes that her escape has had a larger impact than she could have ever foreseen. She must return home and leave this idealic village life behind. </li>
<li>After packing her things and bidding her inn family good bye, Lia and Pauline head out for the capitol of Civica on their donkeys. Lia has promised to meet Rafe at the cistern on the way home for one last meeting. But the girls are intercepted by a chance meeting with Kaden. </li>
<li>Kaden kidnaps Leah send Pauline into the tall grasses until they are far on their way. Cause guess what kids…Kaden has been the assassin this entire time which leaves Rafe as the prince…SURPRISE FACE! </li>
<li>Kaden and his group of assassins must travel across the continent to deliver the princess to the Komizar, leader of the rival kingdom of Venda. In truth, Kaden was tasked with slitting Lia’s throat but for one reason or another, he was unable to. Instead he has convinced his band of outlaws that she has “the gift” (a magical power bestowed to 1st daughters of the kingdom of Morrighan). This actually works to Lia’s advantage as she constantly trips the group up with her “visions.” </li>
<li>The group stops at a vagabond camp for a few days to rest, clean up and EAT! Dihara, the elder of the group, is able to teach Lia that in fact she does have “the gift” if only she would listen for it (and that her mother has taught her to suppressed her gift this entire time). She also aids Lia in the translation of the mysterious book she stole from the Scholar. It is also at the vagabond camp that Kaden (heavily intoxicated) divulges his secret love for Lia. </li>
<li>A fight breaks out when it is revealed that Kaden’s group is the gang that murdered Lia’s sister-in-law. </li>
<li>The group travels on from the camp. Lia takes the opportunity of a bison stampede to escape from her captors and spends the night in a strange forest. Here she is able to translate the book, a story about the beginning of Morrighan and the prophecy that potentially only Lia herself will be able to save her people in the end. She also escapes from a mysterious tiger in the woods.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
In the end, Lia’s captors reconnect with each other and Lia atop a hill leading into Venda. There they watch as Vendan soldiers massacre a small band of Morrighan forces (including Lia’s brother Walther). Lia buried her brother (with the eventual help of Kaden’s men) and rejoins the others on the trek to Venda. Upon their arrival, Kaden prepares to present Lia to the Komizar as a princess and possessor of “the gift” (which he does not realize she actually has). Rafe catches up to the group and convinces Kaden to take him with them as an emissary of the prince with a message to the Komizar. And Lia finally realizes that Rafe is the prince of Dalbrek. <br />
<h2>
anything else</h2>
Morrighan = kingdom of Lia's birth, also name of the girl who delivered her people to a better land
<br />
<br />
Venda = rival kingdom of barbarians & assassins, home of the Komizar, Kaden's employer, also name of the sister of Morrighan, a crazed queen
<br />
<br />
Dalbrek = kingdom to the East, home of Prince Rafe
<br />
<br />
"The Gift" = traditional (possibly magical) gift possessed by the 1st daughter of a family, especially strong within royaltyJudithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10169574717441851611noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-22776977733652481572014-10-05T06:18:00.001-07:002014-10-05T06:18:53.927-07:00The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOFgPQXtwXwvHrcTnO4CBLHYg510oFEaG-BYPuddQKPBBobKE8bQgSMiBjOJrbN2uokqIzBH1EuoPASgmNPEl3FElywYjkYowaj2vFnaUb5ANwJzZ6TBkY8opqUC5uvsAYHHhiZbYPY0/s1600/the+burning+sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiOFgPQXtwXwvHrcTnO4CBLHYg510oFEaG-BYPuddQKPBBobKE8bQgSMiBjOJrbN2uokqIzBH1EuoPASgmNPEl3FElywYjkYowaj2vFnaUb5ANwJzZ6TBkY8opqUC5uvsAYHHhiZbYPY0/s1600/the+burning+sky.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<div>
<b>Title:</b> The Burning Sky</div>
<div>
<b>Author:</b> Sherry Thomas</div>
<div>
<b>Series:</b> The Elemental Trilogy #1</div>
<div>
- <i>The Burning Sky</i> (September 2013)</div>
<div>
- The Perilous Sea (September 2014)</div>
<div>
- Untitled (September 2015)</div>
<div>
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17332556-the-burning-sky" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div>
<h2>
summary</h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's been told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a reluctant sixteen-year-old girl with no training.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Guided by his mother's visions and committed to avenging his family, Prince Titus has sworn to protect Iolanthe even as he prepares her for their battle with the Bane. But he makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the tyrant closing in, Titus must choose between his mission—and her life.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This recap was written by our wonderful sidekick, Adelena @ <a href="http://apageofheaven.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">A Page of Heaven</a>! Thank you so much!</div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
in short</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Iolanthe, an elemental mage, teams up with Prince Titus, Master of the Domain, to defeat the Bane, a powerful tyrant mage ruling over many mage realms. Titus was prophesied to die in his mission to take down the Bane but continued to fulfil his destiny despite the foretold outcome. Through their training and adventures, Iolanthe and Titus started to develop feelings for each other and the book ended with the death of the Inquisitor and the Bane (who inexplicably resurrected after a day or two), leading to Iolanthe and Titus preparing for another attempt on his life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
what went down</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Master Haywood, Iolanthe’s guardian, destroys the light elixir she made for an upcoming wedding and she tries to salvage it by using lightning.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Prince Titus and the Inquisitor (a lackey of the Bane) both see the lightning and head over to Iolanthe’s location.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Master Haywood tells Iolanthe Atlantis, the empire that conquered a bunch of mage realms, is after her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus reaches Iolanthe before the Inquisitor does and sends her to London (in the real world, AKA a non-mage realm) via a one-way portal trunk.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus escapes the Inquisitor and heads to England where he attends school at Eton College.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus finds Iolanthe in London, where they had an unpleasant encounter with Lady Wintervale. He reveals to Iolanthe that the Bane (ruler of Atlantis) is after her and her powers.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Iolanthe, disguised as a boy named Archer Fairfax, agrees to attend Eton College with Titus in order to hide from Atlantis.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">She discovers Titus had ulterior motives in aiding her (he needed her help to defeat the Bane), straining their relationship.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">However, due to her desperate situation, she agreed to swear a blood oath where she will help him make an attempt on the Bane’s life in exchange of him doing his best to help rescue Master Haywood, who was imprisoned at the Inquisitory.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus starts training Iolanthe in his Crucible, a private alternate world/venture-book of sorts accessible via a book passed down through his ancestors.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Inquisitor requests to meet Titus at a gala, he brings Iolanthe (disguised as his canary) along.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus was brought to the Inquisitory for questioning by the Inquisitor and he discovers he had secretly been given truth serum.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Inquisitor (a mind mage) starts digging through Titus’s mind, causing him to start losing consciousness. Iolanthe saves the day by using air to knock a porcelain sphere off a chandelier, hitting the Inquisitor in the head.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus and Iolanthe proceeds to hide in a hotel where he shows her his late mother’s journal of visions and revealed she had seen a vision of his death in which he had been close to his current age.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">They return to Eton College and found out the Inquisitor is still unconscious back in the Domain.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus starts planning of ways to kill the Inquisitor in order to protect the fact that Iolanthe is with him.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">During a training session, Iolanthe convinces Titus to let her try the Sleeping Beauty story in the Crucible and is killed by wyverns.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">She immediately gives it a second attempt despite being traumatized and almost made it to Sleeping Beauty’s chamber despite Titus’s protests (because Titus had given Sleeping Beauty Iolanthe’s appearance).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">He tackles her to the ground before she reached the chamber. They kiss. Then he states they can’t have such “unnecessary emotions” between them lest it thwarts their main mission.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The Inquisitor, along with an entourage, makes a surprise appearance at Eton College the next day, disguised as Titus’s subjects and relatives requesting to meet and greet all of his peers. Master Haywood and Nettle Oakbluff were brought along to identify Iolanthe.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Iolanthe finds out about the unexpected visit and tries to vault elsewhere, only to discover Eton College was turned into a temporary no-vaulting zone.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">She escaped through Wintervale’s wardrobe and went to seek Lady Wintervale for help.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Iolanthe, known as Archer Fairfax, proceeds to greet the Inquisitor and her entourage, much to Titus’s shock. Master Haywood and Nettle Oakbluff did not recognize her as Lady Wintervale hid somewhere and aimed a torrent of spells at the two which stopped them from accessing old memories and gaining new ones.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Afterwards, Titus discovered from his mother’s journal that she had a vision of Titus hiding in the Citadel library and having something to do with the Inquisitor’s death.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Due to Eton becoming a no-vaulting zone, Titus uses the crucible as a portal to travel to his Citadel in the Domain. On the way in the Crucible, he discovers Helgira, a famous historical elemental mage who controlled lightning, looked exactly like Iolanthe.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Back at Eton, Iolanthe discovers Titus was missing and his mother’s vision which was in her visions journal. She enlists a friend, Kashkari to help hide Titus’s disappearance while she, too, used the Crucible as a portal to track him down.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Upon reaching the Citadel library, Titus found the Bane, the Inquisitor, and Master Haywood present. Before he could attempt to save Master Haywood, Master Haywood suddenly vanishes into thin air.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Seeing as he could do nothing else, Titus escaped via the Crucible but got injured while in it, which caused the copy of the Crucible in the Citadel library to start bleeding.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus had to pass through Black Bastion, Helgira’s stronghold on his way back to his Crucible in Eton.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">On his way there via flying on a wyvern, the Bane and the Inquisitor appeared behind him riding a phantom behemoth, an extremely powerful and terrifying creature of myth.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Titus directs a death spell at the Inquisitor which kills her.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile, Iolanthe, disguised as Helgira, stood on Helgira’s tower balcony and saw Titus and the Bane approaching Black Bastion.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
how did it end?</h2>
Iolanthe used elemental magic to save Titus and defeat the Bane. They kiss.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With the help of Kashkari, Titus had a fake alibi that he was at Eton during the time of the Inquisitor’s death and hence Atlantis assumes he had nothing to do with it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Titus releases Iolanthe from their blood oath, giving her the free will to choose whether or not she wanted to continue helping him defeat the Bane (who had mysteriously resurrected like every other time he had been killed in action). The book ended with Iolanthe and Titus preparing to head back to the Domain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
anything else</h2>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eleme</span>ntal mage: </b>someone who can control the elements of air, water, fire, or earth. The more elements an elemental mage can control, the rarer they are.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Vaulting: </b>a teleportation ability a possessed by most mages but subject to various limitations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The Crucible:</b> a sort of venture-book passed down through the heirs of the House of Elberon where one may train in as it imitates the physical laws of the real world to the tee. One won’t die when killed in the Crucible but if one used it as a portal and get killed, it will result in one’s real death too.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The Bane: </b>the tyrant and powerful mage ruling Atlantis.</div>
</div>
Amber (Books of Amber)http://www.blogger.com/profile/01750403330691361583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8178549546469030960.post-57204714122250695582014-09-23T15:03:00.003-07:002014-09-24T05:39:05.828-07:00Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img border="0" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345651276l/13538816.jpg" width="210" /></div>
<h2>
the basics</h2>
<b>Title: </b>Stormdancer<br />
<b>Author: </b>Jay Kristoff<br />
<b>Series: </b>The Lotus War<br />
- <i>Stormdancer</i> (September 2012)<br />
- Kinslayer (September 2013)<br />
- Endsinger (September 2014)<br />
<b>Add it: </b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13538816-stormdancer" target="_blank">Goodreads</a><br />
<br />
<h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">goodreads summary</span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A DYING LAND<br />
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.<br />
<br />
AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST<br />
The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death.<br />
<br />
A HIDDEN GIFT<br />
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun’s hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima’s last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he'd rather see her dead than help her.<br />
<br />
But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
In short</h2>
The land of Shima is in environmental crisis because of all things blood lotus. The Shōgun of Shima wants to be a Stormdancer for which he needs a thunder tiger. To everyone's shock, his Master Hunter, Masaru, finds the arashitora but is separated from it and his daughter, Yukiko, when the sky-ship is too damaged to fly and catches on fire. Yukiko and Buruu find themselves in the forest of the Iishi mountains where they encounter oni, partner with Kin the Artificer, and come across Kagé. Daichi, an ex-samurai who killed her mother on the Shōgun's command, asks Yukiko to kill him. Yukiko spares his life and agrees. Her plan is working well back on Shima when Yoritomo cuts of Buruu's wings and Yukiko asks Kin to make mechanical ones. However, Hiro, working under the order of the Shōgun, betrays her. On bicentennial, Yoritomo kills Aisha and Kasumi dies at the hand of tthe bushimen. Michi and Akihito get away. Yukiko manages to kill Yoritomo with the help her father who's actually the one with the kami spirits but dies as a result.<br />
<br />
<h2>
What went down</h2>
<ul>
<li>In a forest somewhere Yukiko wished that she had listened to her father as she fights a losing battle with a pair of oni when a beast saves the day as well as Yukiko's life.</li>
<li>Two weeks before that incident, Shōgun Yoritomo wakes up in his palace after dreaming of riding a griffin and now wants one.</li>
<li>Yukiko arrives at the gambling den in time to stop the fight among Masaru, her father, Akihito and the dealer and his men. She has received word that the Shōgun has summoned his master hunter, Masaru, to hunt for a thunder tiger (a creature that no one believes actually exist).</li>
<li>Travelling on foot through the Kigen City to Docktown, Yukiko, Akihito and a passed out Masaru encounter a girl being led by the Purifiers to be executed on the Burning Stones for being impure which means she possesses the kami spirits.</li>
<li>The trio arrives in Doctown where Kasumi informs them that they are to wait for the arrival of Shōgun before leaving on their hunt for an arashitora.</li>
<li>Yukiko gives Kasumi the cold shoulder because her father and Kasumi are in looove.</li>
<li>The procession carrying the Shōgun of Shima and his sister, Lady Tora Aisha, arrives in Docktown where a really awkward (and dangerous) thing happens involving a puppy, a samurai with the sea-green eyes and the Shōgun himself.</li>
<li>Dangerous because Yukiko almost exposed herself.</li>
<li>In a flashback to Yukiko's childhood, she and her twin are unusually attached to their scenthound, Buruu, because the kami spirits of the Iishi mountains gave them the ability to feel what the animals feel and read their thoughts.</li>
<li>Yukiko used to have a twin brother, Satoru and her mother apparently left.</li>
<li>Yukiko meets Kin on the deck in the middle of the night. I like him.</li>
<li>Her relationship with her father worsens when she find him smoking weed with a couple of guildsmen.</li>
<li>Then he tells a tale about Boukyaku, the Dragon of Forgetting and his slayer, Kitsune no Akira who was one of the great Stormdancers to ever exist. (Hey, I want to slay a sea dragon).</li>
<li>Kasumi tries to talk some sense into Yukiko by reminding her that her father loves her but it's no use. And oh, they also spar and Yukiko wins. My home girl.</li>
<li>Fun fact, no one on the Thunder Child wants to risk their life by hunting for a mythical creature and even more so during a toxic thunderstorm but it's futile either way.</li>
<li>In another flashback, a hungry wolf bites Buruu, the combined rage of Yukiko and Satoru kills the wolf while blood flowed from their noses and they say a reluctant goodbye to Buruu.</li>
<li>The Thunder Child slowly makes it way to the Iishi Mountains where someone finally spots the oh-so-magnificent arashitora who breaks off a part of the hull when Masaru tries capturing it by putting it to sleep via blacksleep. Fire ignites, lives are lost but the four doses of blacksleep does nothing to stop the griffin.</li>
<li>Yukiko reaches out to the griffin and they're just introducing themselves when the blacksleep kicks in.</li>
<li>The griffin is caught in a net and hauled into a cage on the sky-ship and Yukiko is filled with sorrow at the sight of men celebrating their victory.</li>
<li>The Child is in a pretty bad shape. Then the arashitora starts to beat its wings producing the sound of the Raijin song which shakes the airship so badly that Masaru decides to tame it by clipping its wings.</li>
<li>Yukiko tries to stop him but it's of no use. They're arguing when the Child catches fire.</li>
<li>Everything is in utter chaos.</li>
<li>Masaru and Yukiko manage to get on the life raft just in time but when Yukiko sees and feel the anguish of the thunder tiger, she jumps out of the life raft to rescue it.</li>
<li>Yukiko gets on his shoulders and they manage to get away before the sky-ship blows into pieces but the thunder tiger wants her to get off of him. She gets thrown off the griffin when she's hit by a thick branch. </li>
<li>Separated from the beast, she encounters a pair of oni in the forest and has lost the fight when the thunder tiger comes to save her to pay his debt to her (y'know the scene where the book started).</li>
<li>In a yet another flashback, Shōgun Kaneda has died and the new Shōgun made Masaru the Master Hunter and commanded that he moves to Kigen, a command which repulsed Naomi to no end. In the following days, a serpent strikes Satoru and he dies in her arms as Yukiko reaches into his mind to comfort him.</li>
<li>In the forest, Yukiko wakes up to find the thunder tiger leaving and convinces him that they should stay together as she'd give him tribute and he the protection she needs. She decides to call him Buruu.</li>
<li>They have another encounter with a trio of oni and Buruu slays them with ease and magnificence. </li>
<li>Yukiko and Buruu come across an Artificer and finds out that he's actually Kin. </li>
<li>WHAT.</li>
<li>Kin is forbidden to touch anything that has remote traces of blood lotus, his atmos-suit feeds him nutrition intravenously and he basically thinks of it as his skin than his actual skin. Weird, right?</li>
<li>Buruu is jealous of Kin because he wants Yukiko to talk to him and not Kin. It's ridiculously adorable.</li>
<li>As days pass, Kin becomes suspicious of what Yukiko is. Uh oh.</li>
<li>Kin falls in a deep hole which is basically a human-made trap and his atmos-suit almost burns him alive when it malfunctions.</li>
<li>Kin tells Yukiko that the beacon in his atmos-suit would've informed the guildsmen of its destruction and they'd come looking for him. Yukiko hides his atmos-suit near the trap.</li>
<li>Yukiko and Buruu decide to hunt the trap setters and come across two humans, Isao and Kaiji, who look like they're warriors. Yukiko informs them of their situation and they offer them shelter in their village nearby. Yukiko is hesitant but agrees because endless rain and an injured Kin.</li>
<li>In the village that stretches out through the boughs, they meet Kaori who's so beautiful that Yukiko gasps at her beauty despite the diagonal scar running from her forehead to chin. She takes him to her father Daichi who Yukiko thinks she knows.</li>
<li>Daichi is a ronin because Shōgun Yoritomo wanted Kaori and Daichi refused which is why he was demoted and her daughter's face scarred for life.</li>
<li>The next day, Eiko comes to visit Yukiko and tells her about the unfairness that breeds in the land of Shima, how her family was forced out of their lands by clan Daimyo.</li>
<li>Isao and Atsushi peek on Yukiko taking a bath when they see her tattoo of the imperial sun. Trouble alert.</li>
<li>In the palace of Shima, Masaru and Yamagata arrive and inform the Shōgun of the news of their sky-ship crash and the subsequent death of Yukiko and the arashitora. The Shōgun first kills the Child's captain and orders Masaru to be imprisoned. 'Tis a bad day to be Master Hunter.</li>
<li>Masaru had told Akhito and Kasumi to flee before coming to the palace with the dreaded news.</li>
<li>Isao confronts Yukiko along with Kaori and other men dragging a very confused Kin with them. Kaori is sure they're the Shōgun spies and a threat to Kagé.</li>
<li>Kagé are the source of disturbance in Shima, setting fields and refineries on fire all around in an attempt to bring an end to the destruction brought upon them by the blood lotus.</li>
<li>Daichi arrives and believes Yukiko but he thinks Kin should not be forgiven as he is a guildsman. However, they're interrupted with the news that the oni have arrived to avenge the death of their brethren and so a battle begins.</li>
<li>The arashitora asks Yukiko to get on his shoulders and together they slay the red warlord and the rest of the oni flee.</li>
<li>Yukiko is the Stormdancer, yōkai-kin.</li>
<li>Daichi asks Yukiko to promise to kill Yoritomo who commanded Daichi to kill her pregnant mother as a warning to Masaru.</li>
<li>Yukiko is at the throat of Daichi when she realizes that Yoritomo is the hand behind it and killing Daichi won't yield anything. She promises to kill the Shōgun.</li>
<li>HELL YES.</li>
<li>Yukiko is rescued by the Guildsmen, who arrived looking for the Artificer, along with Buruu and Kin after setting up herself in a way that suggested they were lost in the forest.</li>
<li>Yoritomo greets Yukiko and is overjoyed at the sight of the arashitora. He intends to take Buruu to the arena and agrees to take Yukiko with him at her request.</li>
<li>In the arena, Buruu is chained to the earth and Yoritomo tells Yukiko he knows that she's yōkai-kin and intends to use her as a messenger between the beast's mind and his.</li>
<li>Yukiko asks to see her father and the iron samurai, Lord Tora Hiro, is given the order to accompany her at all times during her stay in the palace.</li>
<li>Hiro is the samurai with the sea green eyes.</li>
<li>They talk, he remembers her (!) and doesn't think that the Guildsmen are priests.</li>
<li>Buruu doesn't understand the coupling of humans, it's hilarious.</li>
<li>In Kigen's Chapterhouse, Kin again dreams of the vision he saw. Shateigashira is to punish him and he firsts ask him to tell everything Kin knows about Yukiko.</li>
<li>In the prison, Yukiko meets his father who tells him how calmly Yoritomo took her mother's life and threatened to take everything else if Masaru dared defy him ever again. Yukiko promises to get him out.</li>
<li>Shateigashira arrives in Yoritomo's court to inform him about the impure Kitsune girl. Yoritomo demands proof which has never been needed before.</li>
<li>Yukiko has tea with Lady Aisha who informs her that she's working with Kaori (by only showing her a wisteria bloom, mind you) to bring down the Shōgunate and that Yoritomo laughed in the face of the Guild's emissary who came to have Yukiko's execution commissioned.</li>
<li>Buruu is moulting and the guise of training is working well to hide that fact</li>
<li>Hiro is green with heartsickness or so Michii, Lady Aisha's maidservant, thinks.</li>
<li>In another tea session with Lady Aisha, she informs Yukiko that Akihito is safe in Docktown while she Kasumi smuggled inside the palace.</li>
<li>Yukiko meets Kasumi. There are actual tears.</li>
<li>Yukiko demands that his father be freed and on his way to Yama with Akihito and Kasumi before Yukiko risks her life for Lady Aisha. It is pretty impressive. She's my homegirl, after all.</li>
<li>Seiji the Keeper of Tigers comes to know that the arashitora has begun moulting. This is bad.</li>
<li>Yukiko is training Buruu yet again when the Shōgun arrives, shuts Hiro out of the arena and orders Buruu to open his wings or see Yukiko get killed. Buruu obliges and then Yoritomo demands him to bow to him which does for the sake of Yukiko. What a vile, little-</li>
<li>Hiro carries Yukiko to her suite and they kiss.</li>
<li>In the morning, Yukiko looks at the mechanical arashitora Kin had made for her and an idea forms in her mind.</li>
<li>Kin is not-so-hard at work on Yoritomo's saddle on alternate shifts when he spots Yukiko's note about wanting to talk.</li>
<li>Someone visits Masaru in his prison with a package and tells him to be ready for freedom.</li>
<li>Lady Aisha visits a very sullen Yoritomo and makes him promise to give the Yukiko to her and wait for the surprise that will cripple the Guild.</li>
<li>Kin visits the arashitora in the arena and finds Yukiko there. Clearly in love with Yukiko, he tells her that he can do make the arashitora's wings in a week and that he'll be leaving with her.</li>
<li>Hiro had been taken off Yukiko's guard duty and as she spends the days planning her escape with Michi close to the bicentennial.</li>
<li>Hiro comes to visit Yukiko. She sees that he's absolutely loyal to Yoritomo-no-miya and knows that he cannot be included in her plan.</li>
<li>Hideo, Yoritomo's minister, is Hiro's uncle and asks him to hear his lament to which the Shōgun begrudgingly agrees. And oh, Hideo is suspicious of the increased activity around the arashitora but Yoritomo tells him not to worry about it.</li>
<li>Kin tells Yukiko that everything will be ready in two days time on the eve of the bicentennial. She asks why he's doing it, trying to will his answer to not be what she knows it to be. Kin tells her that they will talk all they want once they are in the air and leaves.</li>
<li>Yukiko feels like a fraud knowing Kin loves her.</li>
<li>Hiro comes looking for her and she sees that it was a mistake to be with him and silences him with a kiss when he's about to proclaim his love.</li>
<li>Kin sees it all and feels like an utter fool.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
How did it end?</h2>
Michi, Akihito, and Kasumi make their way to the prison to free Masaru while, in the arena Yukiko injects the bushimen with blacksleep and prays that Kin arrives soon as the storm grows close. As the trio moves along corridors, Kin arrives in the arena with the gear. Yukiko comes to know that he knows about Hiro. Hiro who was only working under Yoritomo's order to spy on Yukiko. Yoritomo arrives in the arena having just killed Aisha and when he sees the thunder tiger and the Stormdancer as one, slaying Hiro, he runs. Buruu is yet to be fully free of the chains so Yukiko runs after Yoritomo but is too far away to actually kill him when her father helps her. Masaru is actually the one with the kami spirits. He Kenned the rats in the prison, telling them to eat the bushimen and Hideo alive when he saw Kasumi being killed. Kin arrives on Buruu and Yukiko flees Kigen city with Masaru who speaks his last words to Yukiko through Buruu's mind and breathes his last.<br />
<br />
As the truth about inochi is revealed, unrest ignites in Shima but everything is put on hold for the mourning. After the forty-nine days of mourning are over, Yukiko arrives on the shoulders of Buruu to demand from the people of Shima to decide where they stand. To rebel.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Anything else</h2>
Arashitora - A thunder tiger also known as a griffin.<br />
Artificers - Engineers and technicians of the Guild.<br />
Blacklung - A type of lung cancer due to inhalation of chi exhaust.<br />
Blacksleep - A potent toxin derived from the roots of blood lotus.<br />
Blood lotus - A poisonous plant that is the<br />
Brass Atmos Suit - A suit for protection from pollution.<br />
Chi - A primary fuel extracted from the seed of the blood lotus. It's also the base for the environmental destruction in the land of Shima.<br />
Cloudwalkers - Men who fly airships.<br />
Code of Bushido - A code of conduct followed by samurai nobility and common-born warriors throughout their lives.<br />
Daimyo - Leader of the clans and powerful military Lords.<br />
Inochi - A fertilizer applied to the blood lotus fields to delay soil degradation made from the liquefaction of the gaijin prisoners of war.<br />
Kenning - The act of reaching into another living thing's mind to know their thoughts and feelings especially animals.<br />
Lady Izanami - Dark Mother, wife of Lord Izanagi, who birthed the Shima Isles and the oni of Yomi.<br />
Lord Izanagi - Maker god.<br />
Lotus Guild - Controller of all the production of blood lotus in Shima as well as in eliminating the kami spirits.<br />
Lotusmen - Guild's troops.<br />
Oni - Demon spawn of the Yomi underworld.<br />
Purifiers - Guildsmen who light the pyres under those childrens' feet who possess the elemental kami spirits.<br />
Ronin - An ex-samurai. A noble-born warrior without a Lord.<br />
Shōgun - A hereditary governor.<br />
Sky-ship - Airship.<br />
Thunder Child - Airship on which the quartet hunted for the thunder tiger.<br />
Yomi - Deepest level of hell where Lady Izanami and her oni reside.</div>
Sanahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09297915931078500505noreply@blogger.com0