Tuesday, March 31, 2015

*Book Review* This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman, Meagan Spooner

Series: Starbound # 2
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Released: December 23, 2014
Source: Library
Format: Hardcover, 390 pages
Genre: YA, Science Fiction

*Book Blurb*

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

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

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

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



This Shattered World is the second installment in the Starbound trilogy by authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Let me just say before I get to the actual review of the book that you may be able to get away with reading this book, without having read These Broken Stars first. But, I would recommend that you at least be familiar with Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen's story before going forward. I say this in earnest because not only do they have a "guest" appearance in the middle of everything that happens, but apparently it's not the final time we will see Lilac, or Tarver.

This Shattered World, told in alternating narratives, is all about Captain Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac who are on opposite sides of a war that has been constant on the planet of Avon. As the book begins, the world is in a state of ceasefire, but one small match can throw the entire planet a major conflict. Flynn Cormac is the younger brother of one of the more famous rebels (Orla) ever to have been caught and executed. His people, the Fianna, have been living in caves and hiding from soldiers for a decade.

Known as a pacifist by his people, Flynn's daring kidnapping of Captain Chase leads to even more secrets, betrayal, and dare I say, a bridge to the final installment in the trilogy. This Shattered World isn't a romance driven novel. It is a story about war, the ugliness of what happens to the people it affects, secrets about corporations and its intentions, and perhaps a commentary that if people talked things out a bit more, they would find that there's more common ground than things that separate them.

Captain Jubilee Chase is the perfect soldier who becomes so much more over the course of this story. She's a survivor in that her parents were killed a decade before. Lee gained notoriety as being one without a soul, and a hardass where nothing gets to her. For 10 years, Lee hasn't had any dreams, and unlike others, she's not affected by the Fury.

Lee has always wanted to do things adventurous, but ended up enlisting in the military where she quickly rose through the ranks and now leads her own squad. After being taken against her will by Flynn, Lee's eyes open to things that she never understood before. She has to face the fact that things on Avon are more secretive and deeper than she could ever imagine. She progresses towards romantic feelings for Flynn, and not insta romance. I love Lee, I really do. She's quick and deadly. She's not a robot, but a human who has seen her share of nastiness and survived while others have been sent off planet.

I like this story because it is more science fiction than romance. I like the whispers return to the series, and what has happened to them since Tarver and Lilac's story 8 months before. I like the world building much more than the first book. I like that while a majority of the story is on planet, there is a brief scene in which Flynn sees stars for the first time in his life. I think what confused me was the snippets before each chapter. If you don't pay attention, then you will have no clue what this back story really means.

Next in Series: Their Fractured Light featuring Sofia Quinn, who makes a brief appearance in This Shattered World, and Gideon Marchant. As I said in my opening, Flynn Cormac, Jubilee Chase, Tarver Merendsen and Lilac LaRoux all make return appearances in what is expected to be the wrap up fight against LaRoux Industries. Expected publication: December 29th 2015 by Disney-Hyperion

Other Books in Series:
 



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