Captives

“The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature.” – C.S. Lewis

While it is great Christian literature, I would not say that Captives, by Jill Williamson can compete with great contemporary YA dystopian novels, like Divergent by Veronica Roth, Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi, or Partials by Dan Wells.

A very short one-sentence summary (which I sometimes make my students do): The people of the technologically-advanced Safe Lands cannot reproduce healthy children, so they kidnap the villagers of Glenrock in order to force them to have babies for them, forcing the villagers to make some difficult decisions and confront some character flaws in themselves.

I’ll begin with the parts I did like:

-The book did a good job of illustrating what a society obsessed with hedonism would look like. The constant partying, the obsession with style, and the chasing of everything pleasurable was well-told. The PVs with the Stims were a nice touch.

-I thought some of the technologies in the Safe Lands were very creative. The programmable tattoos sound awesome (as in, if that technology existed, I think I’d try it out.)

-The author did a good job of writing a variety of characters. I appreciated that there were sympathetic characters amongst both the people of Glenrock and the Safe Lands. There were also characters with serious personal flaws on both sides. Omar, from Glenrock, betrays his village and gets entrapped by the Safe Lands lifestyle, while Ciddah from the Safe Lands seems like a smart, conscientious, and genuine person. Jordan, from Glenrock, is just annoying with his complete inability to control his temper.

-Towards the end of the book, when Levi begins to try to break everyone out, I finally got pulled into the book. It was an interesting and intricate escape plan, and I appreciated the action.

Problems I had with the book:

-It’s not just in this book, but it’s kind of a pet peeve of mine – in so many post-apocalyptic worlds, all the women revert to wearing skirts. Why??? Why would women just suddenly start wearing skirts again? Maybe it helps create an image of a simpler time. I don’t know.

-The Safe Lands has all kinds of technology, but can’t get “donations” from the healthy men without their consent…? We have the technology to do this now. If the people of the Safe Lands were really that desperate for babies, were okay with kidnapping people, and were willing to inseminate teenage girls, why would they not be willing to take what they needed from the men?

-The book seemed to simplify some of the reactions of the characters. I feel like all of the characters from Glenrock, even Omar, got over the slaughter of their whole village a little quickly. All of the girls, except Naomi, seemed to integrate into their new roles almost immediately. While they did stage one escape attempt, they could have been much more resistant, or even just upset, by what was going on. I wanted the story from Naomi’s point of view, because she was feisty and awesome.

-This was the biggest one: everyone in this story was obsessed with marriage and family. I teach teenagers, so I know that they can be focused on “finding the one.” But they DO have other interests in life. I feel like Mason was the only character in this book who showed the least bit of interest in anything other than getting married. Even the adults in this book (Mason, Levi, and Omar’s father, for example) were focused on making matches for the young people. After their village is slaughtered, and they are kidnapped, everyone is still focused on getting married, or who likes whom. It was a bit overwhelming.

Maybe I am being overly critical. It seems like a lot of people really liked the book. I just did not enjoy it as much as other books of the same genre that I have been reading recently.

*** In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

For other reviews, check out these bloggers:

Julie Bihn
Thomas Fletcher Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Pauline Creeden
Emma or Audrey Engel
Victor Gentile
Timothy Hicks
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
 Shannon McDermott
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Asha Marie Pena
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder
Jojo Sutis
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Phyllis Wheeler

What's Going On?

Today’s post is typed up while driving from Dallas to La Monte, MO.

The big question in Storm, by Evan Angler, is “What is really going on?” Mr. Arbitor volunteers to help DOME search for Erin, but it’s really to rescue his daughter. Lily continues to “revise” Eddie, but really she needs/wants him fighting the system. Arianna “captures” Logan, Peck, Hailey, and Erin, but really she’s protecting them from DOME and the IMPS. Connor’s parents sabotage the plant that makes it rain, but really they are protecting people from Trumpet. Logan follows Lily’s orders, saves the weather mill, but unleashes a plague. And all of it went according to Cylis’s plan.

Overall Impression: I thought the second book in the series was a vast improvement over the first, so I was looking for the third to be even better. I’m not sure it quite hit the mark. Where the first book felt like a lot of exposition, the second was really good with rising action and a climax. I felt like the third slipped back into a bit too much exposition, although it did pick up toward the end.

Also, with the second book, the jumps between characters were done at high-drama moments, so they helped build anticipation. Just when a character was figuring something out or about to reveal something big, it would jump to a different point of view, building suspense. Those transitions did not work quite as well with this book.

There were some surprise twists – I am still not sure how I feel about the author writing himself into the book. I thought the “Notes from the Author” at the beginnings and ends of the books were a neat touch, but it was strange to be reading about the characters reading about themselves in Swipe. Also, the Ultranet at the very end of the book is somewhat intriguing.

Overall, the book kept me interested and reading, but was obviously one of a series rather than a good stand alone novel.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. 

See other reviews here:

Julie Bihn Beckie Burnham Keanan Brand Pauline Creeden Emma or Audrey Engel Sarah Faulkner Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Jason Joyner Carol Keen Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Writer Rani Chawna Schroeder Jacque Stengl Jojo Sutis Jessica Thomas Steve Trower Phyllis Wheeler

'Swipe' by Evan Angler

Swipe, by Evan Angler, was a little difficult to get into. I never felt like I really connected with the main characters, Logan and Erin. A lot of the interactions between characters seemed awkward. Maybe this was done on purpose since they are all 12 or 13 years old, but it made it difficult to relate to the characters.

I think my favorite character was Peck, who you really only meet in the last few chapters. I knew as soon as he was talked about that he wasn’t the terrible menace that the government, or Logan and Erin for that matter, thought that he was. Again, not sure if this was intentional or not by the author, but it was another reason it was difficult to get into the novel. I knew that Logan would discover that Peck wasn’t actually bad, but it took the whole novel to get there, when I just wanted to get on with the story.

One thing that was done well was the setting / world-building. While it wasn’t extensive, I felt like it fit the story, and was unique for an “end of times” Christian novel. Having “the Mark” be something that is already established and a right of passage into adulthood gives the story a good Dystopian /post-apocalyptic feel. It is similar to the trials in Marie Lu’s Legend, the aptitude tests in Veronica Roth’s Divergent, or even the lottery in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. It was an interesting approach, and it worked well.

I also felt like Angler did a good job of describing the different cities without getting bogged down into long sections of description, although I felt like the writing was better when he was simply writing the internal dialogue of the characters rather than having the characters interact with one another.

The novel picked up the pace in the last few chapters when Logan goes to get his Mark, determined to find out what really happened to his sister. Erin’s betrayal was not unexpected, but was still disappointing. Logan finally turns into a character that I can like, and I am interested to see how the story continues in Sneak.