Ravens Gate, by Anthony Horowitz

From the author who wrote the Alex Rider series comes a new series, The Gatekeepers, which starts out with Ravens Gate. This book begins with a 14 year old boy named Matt going to rob a warehouse. The raid goes wrong and he runs into the security guard who ends up getting stabbed. The police arrive and arrest him. After a night in jail, he must go to live with an elderly lady named Mrs. Deverill in a remote town called Lesser Malling. After spending some time there, he notices strange events after he tries to escape. He tries to find info on something he heard called Ravens Gate but fails.
Matt's suspicions are confirmed later when he sees Mrs. Deverill and the villagers of Lesser Malling practicing a ritual of some sort by an abandoned nuclear plant. He thinks she is witch. Anyone who tries to help him dies mysteriously. After finally escaping, he finds more info on Ravens Gate and finds out that it's a type of portal that that will let ancient beings, called the Old Ones who inhabited the earth long ago (like the Forerunners in Halo) to come into the modern world. However, knowing this puts him at risk of being killed.
        The mystery and the suspense of this book keeps you on the edge of your seat. This book was an interesting and exciting read because of that, however, it was a little strange in parts. It had very good descriptive details and a good plot. I recommend it to fans of Anthony Horowitz as well as those who enjoy fantasy.  B+

The Kill Order by James Dashner

This month, I read The Kill Order by James Dashner.  This is a fictional book and is the prequel to the Maze Runner series.  This book talks mostly about the Flare, the disease used at first as a means of population control.  It talks about the mutation of the disease, and how it eventually began to bring mankind to its knees.

As this book takes place before Thomas's time, it follows two new characters named Mark and Trina.  It begins by telling us a little background about them.  One year prior to when the story takes place, sun flares struck the earth, bringing unbearable heat, dangerous radiation, and rising sea levels.  Against all odds, Mark and Trina were able to escape the disaster and flee New York.  Now, thanks to the help of a retired military worker named Alec and his friend Lana, Mark and Trina are living in a settlement in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.

To Mark and Trina, life finally seems to be settling down.  Things seem to be as normal as they'll ever be.  But one day, that all changes.  Upon hearing the roar of engines, everyone in the settlement runs outside to see a Berg, a giant flying machine, hovering above them.  Before anyone can think, men dressed in funny suits step out of the Berg and start shooting people with darts.  The town erupts into chaos.  In an attempt to find out what's going on, Mark and Alec take down the men on the Berg and board it themselves.  Before long, Mark finds a box with a warning label on it, saying it contains a highly contagious disease, or virus.

Suddenly, Mark and Alec are hit with realization.  They realize that the darts the people were shot with were filled with the virus, but they can't understand why they would be.  They decide to undertake a dangerous mission.  They decide to go to the place the Berg came from and learn more about the disease.  But there's one thing they are going to have to be careful about.  The disease is still on the loose, and for all they know, they may already have it.

To start, I've heard very mixed reviews on this book.  Most of them were negative.  However, I thought this book was fantastic.  At first, I thought the three books in the Maze Runner series would be better than this, but now I think that this book is just as good as the others.  I loved how the book gave insight into the Flare and how it all started.  I was interested to see that at first, the virus was used to control the population, but as it mutated, the government sort of ran away from it, and the world collapsed into downright chaos.  In the book, Mark has strong feelings about this.  He is angry with the government, and he is mad that they released this virus without thinking over all the possibilities of what could've happened.  I too believe the government should've taken more careful action and maybe even done something different about the whole issue.  Clearly, this is a very interesting issue.  I also enjoyed in the book how Mark had occasional dreams about his past and about how he escaped the sun flares.   This gave wonderful insight into the sun flares and the kind of person Mark is.  Simply put, this book was just amazing.

In conclusion, this book was one of the best, most interesting books I've read in a while.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  A+

 Insurgent by: Veronica Roth

     Insurgent picks up right where the first book, Divergent, left off: the Abnegation compound has been taken over by the Dauntless soldiers under the attack simulation, leaving behind a broken city.  After Tris and Tobias have managed to turn off the simulation forcing people to wake up and see the blood they now have on their hands.  Some choose to join the cause they we're just fighting for and others choose to fight it.  The one's who try to fight against it must now flee to the other compounds to protect themselves, but this is officially war and no one can just say neutral.

     Veronica Roth did a great job writing this book.  The first book to the series was beautifully written and doesn't disappoint her readers with it's sequel.  Were there times when I thought the pacing was a little off and wanted the story to move a little faster, yes, but that is to be expected.  What I love about this book is the way Veronica Roth manages to develop every character in the series no matter how small they may be.  You are introduced to each character in the first book but you get to see how far they have come and who they now are.  Another thing I really like about the book is the way that after Tris and Tobias begin their relationship they don't fall into the cliche of living happily ever after.  They have problems and it is clearly shown and I love that.

     After reading this book it really makes you look at the world in a new light.  Everyone can't just fit into one category like they are trying to do in this society.  One person is not just smart, or just fearless.  We each have a little bit of everything in us.  Everyone in their own way is smart, brave, selfless, kind, and honest.  You can't just take a human being and put them in a box of what they are and what they're not.  That just limits the person, and they can't show who they really are.  If we do that what kind of person does that make us?

    Overall this book was absolutely fantastic.  Though be forewarned there are some heated kissing scenes, but it really just adds to the story.  I would recommend this series to anyone but start with the first book (the review can be found here). I give this book two thumbs up and an A+.

The Kill Order is a prequel to the Maze Runner series. It is set on earth after the sun flares. Mark and Trina survived the sun flares and now live in the mountains. Just when their lives are turning back into a somewhat normal lifestyle, tragedy strikes. A bog (somewhat similar to a plane) flies over Mark and Trina's colony and starts firing poisonous darts everywhere. Anybody who is hit with them becomes sick and dies within a couple days. Mark, Trina, and a couple of their friends set off on a journey to find the source and cause of this bog.

As they travel towards where the bog came from they discover that all the colonies around them have been attacked too. The people in these colonies have turned into lunatics. They realize that they need to find a cure and reason why this happened. Eventually the lunatics turn into zombie type things and chase/attack Mark and Trina. The rest of the book is about them going to where the bog came     from and the problems on the way.

   

 I do need to warn people that this book was very violent. Almost every page had a scene where somebody would beat up somebody else. Also there were a couple of swear words and a few scenes where Mark and Trina made out. There are also some scenes that are kind of disgusting, like people's faces melting because it is so hot.


Despite these things this book was really entertaining and good. It was action packed and exciting. This book makes the Maze Runner make way more sense, and if you have read the Maze Runner series this is a must read. Another thing that I liked about this book was every chapter had a small cliffhanger that made you want to keep reading it.  So for these reasons I am giving it an A.

   

Candle Wax

In a world where four kingdoms occupy the mysterious land of Lackanay, and a great evil waits for the right moment to emerge again, there must be corruption. C. Bailey Sims delivers this world of supernatural magic in this book shown to the left. The story starts with a sixteen year old girl named Catherine leaving her room and walking down a dark corridor in the middle of the night. She gets outside through a secret passageway in the kitchen. After that she heads to the vault, she gets the guards to open it and grabs some money and the Ancient Onyxes given to her by her grandmother. She leaves the vault, dresses as a boy to be able to leave her kingdom unnoticed, and rides a horse towards the bay of Portsland, where she will take a ship away from the mainland to start a new life. Along the way she is attacked by a 732 year old Farrier cat, a living legend. He eats her horse and she must go on a journey to help this Farrier cat, named Spelopokos, or Pokos. This is all because of the Onyxes. In the ancient land of Devona, a great evil awaits to awaken that can only be stopped by Farrier cats. Without a mate Pokos will die, and leave this great evil to take over all four kingdoms of Lackanay. They travel to a town to get Catherine new supplies where she is befriended by a kind lady who takes her in. Eventually, Catherine's father tries to locate her. She runs away from the village with the daughter of the kind woman who gave Catherine assistance, but they are then captured by the men of a power-loving ruler of one of the four kingdoms. With the help of Pokos they escape and are found by the king of Candle wax. The reason she ran away from home, she was to marry him. They group together and travel to Candle wax. Pokos and Catherine plan to run away to the land outside of Lackanay, called Cinna to find another Farrier cat as he is the only one left in Lackanay.
         They are stopped by the king of Candle wax named Cyril. Cyril and his advisor join them in their quest to find another Farrier cat. While in Cinna, they kill four Farrier cats in self-defense, encounter Cinnans and travel to their mountain fortress, join in a competition to earn their freedom, and chase after the corrupt rulers of Cinna. Pokos is shot by an arrow in the neck and almost dies. With the help of survivors of a shipwreck, they must take Pokos to his brthplace to heal, and Catherine must take the Farrier cats found in Cinna to Lackanay. When Pokos left Lackanay, the great evil awoke and started to march across the land. The other kingdoms soon start to hold back. Eventually Catherine makes it back to Lackanay, and they meet the traitor... The rest you will just have to read, because the rest of the story is too complicated and long to explain in this review. This book was really good and I recommend it to all who enjoy fantasy and made-up creatures. It was an excellent page turner. A+

FYI: If you were wondering, there will be a sequel.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, Kristine Brennan

Are you curious? About disaster? About a human error that ended in the death of hundreds and counting? That is exactly what this book is about, The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster of 1986. It is really a reality check. It is so interesting to hear about how the stupidity of a few people who break the rules can cause a mass plague of sorts. A plague of radiation. I couldn't put it down. Period. It was fascinating. I myself was turned on to this book by the upcoming movie Chernobyl Diaries. The movie doesn't come out until the 25th so I thought to myself, "Hmm I wish I knew more about what happened at Chernobyl." So I made it my mission to find a book that would satisfy my ever growing thirst for that nuclear knowledge. Off to the library I went and I stumbled upon Kristine Brennan's little slice of nonfictional genius.  And yes, it did quench my undying need to know. This book deservingly gets a B+.

It's starts with April 26, 1986. We are thrown into the small town of Pripyat in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant as Reactor 4 blows its top. We are riding with the first response team as they arrive and die. Kristine also goes on to explain how fission, the splitting of atoms, works. We go on to learn what the health effects of the Chernobyl disaster were and how generations are still being affected today.

This book made me really think about how dangerous nuclear power is. With that big of a risk is it really worth it? I mean look what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and what almost happened at Three Mile Island! And that was in Pennsylvania. The closest nuclear power plant to Utah is in Arizona, Palo Verde 1. If something like Chernobyl were to happen there we would die. So I ask you is Nuclear Power really worth it?

Palo Verde is the closest Nuclear Power Plant to us.
It's only about 700 miles away. Not far at all.