For being such an interesting idea, I found this one to be incredibly boring. Too bogged down in details, I wasn't a fan of the main character either. Fian was the only part I found interesting. ( )

For what it was, a fairly light, nice read for today's teens, it was excellent. Don't expect the world-building to be perfectly sensible or realistic, or for there to be any big intrigue, history, or politics. It's a lovely and exciting story about a talented young woman who doesn't realize how brave she is, and how she starts to discover her strengths and the wonders of the world beyond the one she was raised in.

Covers aren't quite right... the best is the one that looks like she's a superhero on a ledge.

I have no idea where the sequel would go, but will look into it and to anything else by the author. ( )

This one got me right in the soul. Overtones of racism and disability discrimination, both internally and externally. The story of Jarra Reaath is one I will not forget, because when you strip away all the science fiction it is a story that happens every day for someone.

Whether you relate to Jarra or not this story has an important and beautiful message: acceptance starts within. If you don't love the skin/life you're in, it is an awful lot harder to go through it. This book tells the story of a girl who has grown up in a world that sees her as inferior for something out of her control. She grows up bitter and angry and with every intention of being just as horrible to these people as they have been to her. Will she take her revenge? You will have to read it to find out.

I especially loved that the ending isn't all sunshine and rainbows, it's just different from the start. ( )

This was an incredibly well crafted book based in the future with a really gorgeous premise.

In this futuristic world, many other solar systems have been colonized with various planets within them harbouring life, usually on just one continent. People use portals to get to these, and are charged for portal use. When the first other planet was colonized, many people left Earth in a hurry, and due to a data failure later, much of Earth's history was lost. As such, a lot of this book takes place on a dig site in New York City.

It was so fascinating seeing an optimistic future for Earth--so many of the dystopias I read involve some government or corporation taking over to save humanity from its own destruction--and to see them looking back at the world today. Seeing the way they discovered "ancient" artifacts was a lot of fun.

I did want to see more of the world, though. There's a strong military presence, but no talk of any government. There were some phrases that took me a while to understand (Twoing?!) and while I appreciate not having my hand held, sometimes I was just plain confused. The differences between various systems were intriguing though, and I'd have loved to see how today's Earth evolved into this world.

This had some very poignant moments. They refer to the twentieth century as "war, war, and bore" but Jarra talks about how those wars feel so distant yet two people killed in a more recent mission can feel so much more powerful and horrible. The tensions she envisioned between apes and exos and the way these were in reality were lovely social commentary.

At times, Jarra felt annoyingly perfect. She can do everything, and if she can't, she has a plan for how to figure out how to do it. I don't know how her class didn't get envious, but there were definitely times where I wanted her to fail out of petty frustration at her perfection. Even the history she made up turned out to be annoyingly perfect, and no one became suspicious about it. And Fian was boring.

There was a section near the end that didn't make sense to me. It used psychology kind of as an excuse to solve a few problems and advance the plot, but the psychology used wasn't believable, and really confused me. I thought Edwards really could have done better, and this was the one section that really pulled me out.

My library doesn't have the other two books. I am cry. But I really loved that this stands alone, and I'm not absolutely dying because I don't know what happens. Many kudos to the author for that; I've had too many cliffhangers lately!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, too, and I was completely drawn into the world Edwards created.
( )

3.5 Stars ( )