Saturday, February 16, 2013

Review: Shades of Earth by Beth Revis

Publisher: Razorbill
Publishing Date: January 15th, 2013
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Pages: 369 pgs
ISBN: 9781595143990
Source: borrowed from the library



Summary from Goodreads:
Amy and Elder have finally left the oppressive walls of the spaceship Godspeed behind. They're ready to start life afresh--to build a home--on Centauri-Earth, the planet that Amy has traveled 25 trillion miles across the universe to experience.

But this new Earth isn't the paradise Amy had been hoping for. There are giant pterodactyl-like birds, purple flowers with mind-numbing toxins, and mysterious, unexplained ruins that hold more secrets than their stone walls first let on. The biggest secret of all? Godspeed's former passengers aren't alone on this planet. And if they're going to stay, they'll have to fight.

Amy and Elder must race to discover who--or what--else is out there if they are to have any hope of saving their struggling colony and building a future together. They will have to look inward to the very core of what makes them human on this, their most harrowing journey yet. Because if the colony collapses? Then everything they have sacrificed--friends, family, life on Earth--will have been for nothing.

FUELED BY LIES.
RULED BY CHAOS.
ALMOST HOME.

My Review: 

What do you say about the end of a series. It is nice to have a conclusion but it is also bittersweet because now I won't know what happens to the characters after the book ends. This is exactly how I feel about it: 





The world that Revis weaves is really interesting. Thus far in the series we have only really known the world on the ship and this novel takes us to the new Earth-like planet that Amy and Elder and hoping to call home. This novel was pretty good but for some reason I didn't connect to it as much as the other two. Now this could have something to do with the fact that while I listened to Across the Universe and A Million Suns on audiobook and I actually read this one. The audio books for the first two books were very well done with two different narrators. I feel a little bit like I should have listened to the audio of Shades of Earth but alas I did not.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book because I did but I just had a more difficult time connecting with Amy and Elder. I found myself to be super frustrated with Amy's dad, who is woken up from the cryochamber once they land on the planet. Amy's dad wakes up and immediately takes control without even asking Amy what has happened in his absence. It's like he swoops in and pushes Amy out of the job of adviser and back into the job of child. As you can imagine this doesn't go very well and I just wanted to shake this man and say stop and listen!

Anyhow, I did enjoy this book and I'm sad to see the series end but I'm happy with the way it does end. I like how Revis questions the idea of colonizing things and how dangerous it can be when we don't sit down and listen. It also brings about the idea of how dangerous messing around with genetics can be. Good work Revis, I look forward to reading more from you.
 

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