Book Review: Avalon

Title: Avalon

Author: Mindee Arnett

Genre: YA sci-fi

Book Blurb: 

A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy in this fascinating and fast-paced sci-fi adventure from author Mindee Arnett.

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

Review:

Killer plot. I think that basically sums up Avalon in two words. That plot was insane. Insanely good. Insanely unique (more on this later.) Insanely fast paced. Insanely spooky (in some places.) Insanely unexpected.  The moment I read the book blurb "A ragtag group of teenage mercenaries who crew the spaceship Avalon stumble upon a conspiracy that could threaten the entire galaxy" I basically ran to the library and borrowed it. It's been ages since I've read a hard core takes-place-in-outer-space sci-fi sort of book. (The last one I can remember is the Across the Universe series. Oh wait, jk...I just read Ender Game a few weeks ago.)

Book Review: Proxy

Title: Proxy

Author: Alex London

Genre: Sci-Fi

Book Blurb:

Knox was born into one of the City’s wealthiest families. A Patron, he has everything a boy could possibly want—the latest tech, the coolest clothes, and a Proxy to take all his punishments. When Knox breaks a vase, Syd is beaten. When Knox plays a practical joke, Syd is forced to haul rocks. And when Knox crashes a car, killing one of his friends, Syd is branded and sentenced to death.

Syd is a Proxy. His life is not his own.

Then again, neither is Knox’s. Knox and Syd have more in common than either would guess. So when Knox and Syd realize that the only way to beat the system is to save each other, they flee. Yet Knox’s father is no ordinary Patron, and Syd is no ordinary Proxy. The ensuing cross-country chase will uncover a secret society of rebels, test both boys’ resolve, and shine a blinding light onto a world of those who owe and those who pay. Some debts, it turns out, cannot be repaid.

Review:

When I first read the description of this book on Amazon, my first thought was This whole proxy/patron scenario sounds like The Whipping Boy (another book I read in middle school.) And indeed, the whole proxy-patron relationship is virtually identical; the only difference is that Proxy takes place in the future.

The action...it was a helluva of a ride! It was quite litereally nonstop action from page one till the very end (more about the end later because that ending requires a whole paragraph to itself.) So yeah, basically the entire book was like an intense roller coaster.

The world building was simply I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E. All those flashy, high tech gadgets really stretched my imagination, but are still totally plausible at the same time. And I loved the idea of integrating computer code into human DNA. All the citizens have computer codes running through their bloodstream, a constant stream of data flowing through them. I personally just find that idea mind boggling. I also loved how it is possible for someone to write out a computer code and then inject it into themselves and *bam* that person could start glowing in the dark, change eye color, etc, depending on what was written in the computer code.