Scott Westerfeld is the author of some of my favorite books. Born in 1963, he's written almost 20 books, half of which I've read and loved and the other that is going on my to be read list.
The first series I've read written by him was Midnighters.
The first book in the series, The Secret Hour, tells the story of Jessica Day who moves with her family to Bixby. There, Jessica finds out she's actually a midnighter, a person born on the exact stroke of midnight and thus able to enjoy the extra hour in the day that normal humans aren't allowed. Because in Bixby the world has 25 hours instead of 24. For a midnighter, the extra hour also means they have to be careful of the creatures that live in the place governed by the Blue Hour.
Confusing? It may seem so and it was one of the reasons I only read this book late after I got it. But once I started reading the Book Fairy knocked me with her wand and glued the book to my fingers.
Joke aside though, this book is good and it opens the way to Touching Darkness and Blue Noon, the sequels in this series, where Jessica and the rest of the crew manage to save the world.
Did I forget to mention that?
Silly me. Jessica is accompanied shortly by Dess, Rex, Jonathan and Melissa in the fight against Darklings and Slithers, the big, bad creatures that live in the Blue Hour (the 25th hour).
I'm not a big fan of writing reviews (only reading them from time to time) so, if you want to know more about these books: read them!
You can buy the books here:
The Secret Hour Touching Darkness Blue Noon
The second series was the Uglies. Amazing one as well. One of the first dives I've made at science-fiction novels, from fantasy and romance.
The series is comprised of three novels and a companion novel: Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras.
"Uglies is set in a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. You might think this is a good thing, but it’s not. Especially if you’re one of the Smokies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)." ~ Scott Westerfeld's website
WARNING! THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
...your call...
The main character, Tally Youngblood, close to turning 16, can't wait to turn pretty and have all the fun that derives from that status. But then Tally meets Shay, a girl who doesn't want to turn pretty and later, David, an ugly that was born outside the city, something unheard off. Together, they want to pull a prank before their operations just to go off with a bang. Things go awry and Shay runs off to Smoke with David. Tally is then forced to go after her and bring her back or stay stuck being an ugly forever. After finding Smoke and seeing how life on the outside is, Tally is reluctant to return and betray the rebels and David who she fall for. But through a mistake word gets back to the city and Special Circumstances come and destroy Smoke, taking the uglies back.
In the second book we find Tally and Shay pretties with bubbly heads, superficial and in search of danger. They join the Crims and Tally befriends Zane, the leader of the Crims and drifts apart from Shay which leaves the Crims and forms her own group called the Cutters. Getting some special pills from her friends in New Smoke, Tally splits the pills with Zane, hoping they would make them clear-headed enough to escape to the wilderness. But, while Tally gets better, Zane gets headaches.
The escape finally but are followed by a tracking device implanted in Zane's tooth. To save the rest of New Smoke and David, Tally stays with the now sick Zane and hurts David in order to make him leave. The plan works and Special Circumstances' people come (Specials) with Shay, who take the two back to the city.
The third book shows Tally and Shay being friends again, both of them Specials. This books ties many loose ends and finishes with Tally overthrowing the governing people from the city.
END OF SPOILERS!
These books were among the first that dealt with a single girl, intelligent and with allies, managed to overthrow a government. The first that I've read in any case. I had a very strong sense of deja-vu when I've read The Hunger Games later and recently Divergent. Different stories, basic plot underneath all the words. I'm not criticizing. I rather like it actually.
Extras could even be read as a stand-alone novel though it wouldn't make a lot of sense to those not familiar with the Uglies universe. However, it was a very good book and as, the author said, four is <<the secret definition of the word "trilogy">>. :)
You can buy the Uglies trilogy here and Extras here.
The third series, and my favorite by far, is the Leviathan trilogy.
This is the best steampunk trilogy I've ever read. It has gears and wheels and cogs and gigantic machinery all mixed with live airships, Darwinists and Clankers, ships made of life threads and most importantly a friendship and love story between a commoner girl dressed as a Midshipman on the Leviathan and the Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Another complicated story? Yes, a bit. Not being familiar with the speech, it sometimes took me two readings of the same sentence to understand it. But that's mostly because I didn't know as much English when I first read the books as I do now.
I read Leviathan some time ago and was fascinated by it. Behemoth proved easier to read, after having gotten myself familiar with the language in the first book. But I loved Goliath by far, probably because of the ending, which I can't say for a lot of books. Writers have a way of spoiling the endings or leaving them hanging. This however concludes the story, leaves a lot to the imagination and still manages to make me love the book.
The characters aren't exaggeratedly drawn as heroes and heroines, just people following their duty, destiny and pure chance sometimes. And I don't mean drawn only in a figurative way of speech. The books have drawings as well, which made the understanding of the descriptions a hundred times easier.
This is one series I'm not going to spoil for anyone. It's too good for that and a lover of books would get swayed with what I've already said above.
Here are a few pictures though, to make up your mind about reading this beautiful series:
The last picture isn't actually in any of the books, it is however found on the author's website, along with a short extra chapter: Read Here
You can buy the books here: Leviathan Behemoth Goliath
Enjoy!
The first series I've read written by him was Midnighters.
The first book in the series, The Secret Hour, tells the story of Jessica Day who moves with her family to Bixby. There, Jessica finds out she's actually a midnighter, a person born on the exact stroke of midnight and thus able to enjoy the extra hour in the day that normal humans aren't allowed. Because in Bixby the world has 25 hours instead of 24. For a midnighter, the extra hour also means they have to be careful of the creatures that live in the place governed by the Blue Hour.
Confusing? It may seem so and it was one of the reasons I only read this book late after I got it. But once I started reading the Book Fairy knocked me with her wand and glued the book to my fingers.
Joke aside though, this book is good and it opens the way to Touching Darkness and Blue Noon, the sequels in this series, where Jessica and the rest of the crew manage to save the world.
Did I forget to mention that?
Silly me. Jessica is accompanied shortly by Dess, Rex, Jonathan and Melissa in the fight against Darklings and Slithers, the big, bad creatures that live in the Blue Hour (the 25th hour).
I'm not a big fan of writing reviews (only reading them from time to time) so, if you want to know more about these books: read them!
You can buy the books here:
The Secret Hour Touching Darkness Blue Noon
The second series was the Uglies. Amazing one as well. One of the first dives I've made at science-fiction novels, from fantasy and romance.
The series is comprised of three novels and a companion novel: Uglies, Pretties, Specials and Extras.
"Uglies is set in a world in which everyone has an operation when they turn sixteen, making them supermodel beautiful. Big eyes, full lips, no one fat or skinny. You might think this is a good thing, but it’s not. Especially if you’re one of the Smokies, a bunch of radical teens who’ve decided they want to keep their own faces. (How anti-social of them.)." ~ Scott Westerfeld's website
WARNING! THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
...your call...
The main character, Tally Youngblood, close to turning 16, can't wait to turn pretty and have all the fun that derives from that status. But then Tally meets Shay, a girl who doesn't want to turn pretty and later, David, an ugly that was born outside the city, something unheard off. Together, they want to pull a prank before their operations just to go off with a bang. Things go awry and Shay runs off to Smoke with David. Tally is then forced to go after her and bring her back or stay stuck being an ugly forever. After finding Smoke and seeing how life on the outside is, Tally is reluctant to return and betray the rebels and David who she fall for. But through a mistake word gets back to the city and Special Circumstances come and destroy Smoke, taking the uglies back.
In the second book we find Tally and Shay pretties with bubbly heads, superficial and in search of danger. They join the Crims and Tally befriends Zane, the leader of the Crims and drifts apart from Shay which leaves the Crims and forms her own group called the Cutters. Getting some special pills from her friends in New Smoke, Tally splits the pills with Zane, hoping they would make them clear-headed enough to escape to the wilderness. But, while Tally gets better, Zane gets headaches.
The escape finally but are followed by a tracking device implanted in Zane's tooth. To save the rest of New Smoke and David, Tally stays with the now sick Zane and hurts David in order to make him leave. The plan works and Special Circumstances' people come (Specials) with Shay, who take the two back to the city.
The third book shows Tally and Shay being friends again, both of them Specials. This books ties many loose ends and finishes with Tally overthrowing the governing people from the city.
END OF SPOILERS!
These books were among the first that dealt with a single girl, intelligent and with allies, managed to overthrow a government. The first that I've read in any case. I had a very strong sense of deja-vu when I've read The Hunger Games later and recently Divergent. Different stories, basic plot underneath all the words. I'm not criticizing. I rather like it actually.
Extras could even be read as a stand-alone novel though it wouldn't make a lot of sense to those not familiar with the Uglies universe. However, it was a very good book and as, the author said, four is <<the secret definition of the word "trilogy">>. :)
The third series, and my favorite by far, is the Leviathan trilogy.
This is the best steampunk trilogy I've ever read. It has gears and wheels and cogs and gigantic machinery all mixed with live airships, Darwinists and Clankers, ships made of life threads and most importantly a friendship and love story between a commoner girl dressed as a Midshipman on the Leviathan and the Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Another complicated story? Yes, a bit. Not being familiar with the speech, it sometimes took me two readings of the same sentence to understand it. But that's mostly because I didn't know as much English when I first read the books as I do now.
I read Leviathan some time ago and was fascinated by it. Behemoth proved easier to read, after having gotten myself familiar with the language in the first book. But I loved Goliath by far, probably because of the ending, which I can't say for a lot of books. Writers have a way of spoiling the endings or leaving them hanging. This however concludes the story, leaves a lot to the imagination and still manages to make me love the book.
The characters aren't exaggeratedly drawn as heroes and heroines, just people following their duty, destiny and pure chance sometimes. And I don't mean drawn only in a figurative way of speech. The books have drawings as well, which made the understanding of the descriptions a hundred times easier.
This is one series I'm not going to spoil for anyone. It's too good for that and a lover of books would get swayed with what I've already said above.
Here are a few pictures though, to make up your mind about reading this beautiful series:
You can buy the books here: Leviathan Behemoth Goliath
Enjoy!
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