Futureland: Battle for the Park - H.D. Hunter

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆
Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Rounding up from 3.75)

From the cover:

"Everyone wants a ticket to Futureland, the extraordinary flying park where you can literally live out your wildest dreams. Want to step inside your favorite video game? Go pro in a sports arena? Perform at a real live concert? Grab your ticket and come right in.

Yet with all its attractions, Futureland has always just been home to Cam Walker, the son of the park's famous creators. And when Futureland arrives at its latest stop, Atlanta, Cam is thrilled for what promises to be the biggest opening ever...

But things aren't quite right with the Atlanta opening. Park attractions are glitching. Kids start to go missing. And when his parents are blamed, Cam must find the missing kids and whoever's trying to take down his family...before it's too late."

This book had a lot of highs and lows for me. Overall, I found the premise and the actual adventure of it all very intriguing and engaging, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of comic panels and the interview transcripts. It gave me Illuminae vibes, and I almost wish those had been used a little bit more...not for storytelling purposes, just for my own enjoyment. I also thought some of the characters - Cam, Dooley, Angel, and Yusuf, primarily, were very vibrant and felt realistic. Other characters, particularly Cam's grandma and the bad guy, fell a little flat, especially in comparison to the three-dimensionality of most of the characters. 

With Cam's grandma, it seemed like even in situations where any rational person would have been concerned, her character fell back on "oh hell no, I'm not about that technology. Come on, I'm going to make you a home-cooked meal." It was fine when she was first introduced, but at a certain point it just stops making sense that she's so unwilling to engage with what Cam is saying when so much shady stuff is clearly going on. And the bad guy was just...so openly and obviously evil. I mean, fine, I guess, if that's what you're into, but given that this is meant to be a mystery, it made it a little hard to buy into everyone being unsure what was going on when there was no subtlety to the character at all. I know I'm an adult reading a middle grade book, but I kept thinking about how my students would engage with this, and from the moment the character was introduced there might as well have been a giant neon sign that said "NEMESIS" pointing to the antagonist. Isn't part of the fun in reading a mystery having to guess at who it might be?

My last gripe with the book was that the plot seemed so jumpy. The big reveals were solid, but it seemed like Hunter wasn't sure what to do with the in-between. It was like...gaaaaasp, this huge thing just happened! Oh my god, we need to get to the bottom of this, it is URGENT. Ah well, gotta go to school, I guess. <<fast forward>> gaaaaaasp, another huge thing! We all love big exciting moments, but I wish there had been more buildup and cohesion. Instead of the story beginning with Futureland's arrival in Atlanta and things immediately getting weird, we could have seen his family getting ready for the opening, and then as we started getting comfortable with the story, BAM, things start going wrong. Instead of BIG REVEAL - go to school/Grandma's house and get shut down - BIG REVEAL, a better flow with investigation and breaks in the case. 

All that said...it was a solid book, I think the different elements would be engaging for kids, and I give it points for not being super duper long. I think the one benefit to it jumping from action to action is that it grabs your interest and makes for a quick read. Plus, a mystery involving a futuristic amusement park featuring super advanced AI? Pretty cool.

Memento - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"AIDAN is the AI you'll love to hate. The advanced AI system was supposed to protect a fleet of survivors who'd escaped the deadly attack on Kerenza IV. AIDAN was supposed to be infallible. But in the chaotic weeks and months that followed, it became clear that something was terribly, terribly wrong with AIDAN..."

I have been waiting to read this novella for SO. LONG. I'm still a little in disbelief that it actually happened. Some background: this is a prequel of sorts to Illuminae, and it was initially offered as an incentive to preorder the first book in Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's newest series, which, heartbreak of heartbreaks, I was unaware of. Consequently, while I knew it existed, I couldn't find it ANYWHERE. 

At long last, though, it was released for everyone to enjoy, and I couldn't be happier. It came at the perfect time, too, because I've been rereading the series, so I was able to listen to Memento and then return to Gemina with new knowledge of AIDAN's journey. And what a journey it has been! As if AIDAN's character weren't chilling enough, some of the background you get on what goes down immediately after the attack on Kerenza IV, WHEW! Just...incredible writing. I can't even handle my love of this series or these authors, how are they so good?

Honestly, need I even tell you to read this? Do it. And if you haven't read the Illuminae trilogy, get on it. Fantastic.

Obsidio - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? 

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. 

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken."

So everyone has made it this far, surviving the Phobos victims, escaping the Lincoln in the battered and almost broken Hypatia, avoiding being liquidated or shaken apart in a crazy gemina field at the Heimdall station...but where will they go from here? Without access to a wormhole or jump gate, the refugees aboard the Mao and the Hypatia are stranded in space, condemned to dying aboard those ships. Their only option is the mobile jump gate BeiTech used to attack Kerenza, so it looks like Kady and Ezra are headed home, to what they don't know. Combining the refugees from Kerenza with those from Heimdall isn't all sunshine and rainbows, though...will conflict between crews put an end to their journey before the pair can find out?

Asha, presumed dead after the refugees aboard the Copernicus, the Hypatia, and the Alexander escaped Kerenza, is alive and...not well, but surviving. It's only a matter of time before BeiTech manages to repair their jump drive, liquidates the Kerenza survivors, and makes their escape. Asha and her friends are fighting back, but when BeiTech supplies start to go missing, none of the resistance seems to know what's going on. Are their plans unraveling? Or will Asha survive to be reunited with her cousin?

I've waited for this book for so long, and it did not disappoint. Action packed, breathtaking, intense...the trilogy is complete, and it remains one of my favorite stories ever. There were gasps, there were tears, at one point I broke down sobbing...read this book. READ IT.

Gemina - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

The sci-fi saga that began with the breakout bestseller Illuminaecontinues on board the Jump Station Heimdall, where two new characters will confront the next wave of the BeiTech assault.

Hanna is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy’s most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion.

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station’s wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They’ve totally got this. They hope."

Just like with Illuminae, I'm scared that if I start describing this book I'll give stuff away. Trust, though, that it is just as incredible as its predecessor. Hanna is strong and tough, Nik is sarcastically funny and brave, and the world Amie and Jay have created is so vivid, reading the dossier makes you feel like you're there. Read this book for an amazing visual experience, listen to the audio version to feel like you're listening to a movie...better yet, do both. And do it soon, because you've got less than a week before the third book in the series, Obsidio, is released!

Illuminae - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover: 

"This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.


BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes."

This book is a fucking roller coaster ride. The audiobook is amazing, the book is unique and fascinating, and I highly recommend both versions. I don't want to get into any details of the story because how do I talk about it without giving stuff away? I don't think I can! But seriously, seriously, I cannot say enough good things about this book. Fans of Firefly, it's got a similar vibe. Fans of good books, this book is incredible. Anyone considering picking it up who is put off by the size--it's a tome--don't be! The book is so large because it's laid out like a real dossier, with case files, images, all kinds of incredible formatting. It seems huge, but it goes by surprisingly quickly. The audiobook does as well. It's read by a full cast, and it's more like listening to a movie than an audiobook. I loved both versions so much that I listened to the audiobook, immediately read the book version, read the book version again, and then re-listened to the audiobook. Four reads back to back, no lie. Truly, this is more than a book...it's a work of art. For the love of god, do yourself a favor...read it!