Maryse's Book Blog

Following my heart, one book at a time...

sci-fi

Book Review – The One by John Marrs

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The One
How could I POSSIBLY resist this one?!!! Don’t let that sinister cover fool you (although of course… that alone pulled me in). This IS a story of love, falling in love, and the dream come true. Well… except for the ones that are NOT “the one”.

It sounds too good to be true, and for many, it proves exactly so. In theory, this should be the answer to the perfect life. No more divorce (or painful breakups), deep love through and through from start to end, your perfect partner. Your proven soulmate backed by science. read more

Guest Review (my sister!!) – Invader by C.J. Cherryh

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Invader: Book Two of Foreigner (Foreigner series 2) by C.J. Cherryh
Review by Johanne Pearl Couturier
4 stars
Looks like Bren Cameron’s life is a problem… a big problem for everyone it seems, even people from his own government. Stuck between his job dictating what he should do and say as a diplomat, and his own respect for the people he is living with, the choice is not going to be easy.
In the sequel to Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh continues the saga of “the man stuck in the middle”, in a world where he has to judge who is with him and who is against him… while the leader he is associated with makes him look like a pawn on a chessboard. Atevi are divided now and more than one group want his life to end while other are not sure yet… seeing him as a very dangerous disturbance with his wild ideas. His life and work are already complicated enough but other players decide to reappear from the past… a past Bren knows less about than he thinks and, suddenly, he wishes that some of these people could be with him, making is loneliness as a human being more bearable, if only by teaching a new guest what the Atevi want him to learn.
Bren is not the only one who wants to be informing the new group of the intricacies of this world and the scales could be tipped in a way that could create another war. He has to use all his talents and knowledge to make sure no one has clear advantage over the other, but what does he really want? Who is he really? Can he develop feelings for an Ateva on whom he does not know much, beside the fact she is a member of the assassins’ Guild? She clearly expressed her curiosity about intimacy but can a relationship develop between two species who do not understand each other at a core level?
So many things are happening in this book, it is insane! You’re wracking your brain with “what ifs”? Trying to find who is loyal and who is not? Being surprised by twists and turns? Go ahead! Give yourself this pleasure and be immerged in a world that you get to understand more and more as you follow Bren’s train of thoughts. If you think your life is not easy, try to walk a mile in this human’s shoes… or ride on the back of a Macheiti for that matter. Did I tell you I love those beasts? Oooops, yes I did already! Lol
Well, time for me to go on reading book 3 so I can find out how the new “guests” will adapt to all this madness! And if his 9 feet black alien beauty’s curiosity, making him so uneasy around her, will be satisfied or shift to that new someone…
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C. J. Cherryh – Foreigner Series Reading Order

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OMG this series is HUGE!!! 15 books, and my sister is going crazy for it! She’s review the first two books right here on the blog, but quickly… she describes it this way:

Johanne: It is sci-fi and very political (it’s about two species – humans that arrive on a planet that’s already colonized) and so interesting, but there is romance and I can’t wait for it to happppppeeennnn!!!!

About book #1:

The groundbreaking novel that launched Cherryh’s eponymous space opera series of first contact and its consequences…
It had been nearly five centuries since the starship Phoenix, lost in space and desperately searching for the nearest G5 star, had encountered the planet of the atevi. On this alien world, law was kept by the use of registered assassination, alliances were defined by individual loyalties not geographical borders, and war became inevitable once humans and one faction of atevi established a working relationship. It was a war that humans had no chance of winning on this planet so many light-years from home.
Now, nearly two hundred years after that conflict, humanity has traded its advanced technology for peace and an island refuge that no atevi will ever visit. Then the sole human the treaty allows into atevi society is marked for an assassin’s bullet. THe work of an isolated lunatic? The interests of a particular faction? Or the consequence of one human’s fondness for a species which has fourteen words for betrayal and not a single word for love? read more

Movie Review – The Girl With All the Gifts (written by M.R. Carey)

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How could I possibly resist THIS “Hannibal Lecter” touch? I could not. 😉

The Girl With All the Gifts <— OMG I was DYING to read this. I one-clicked this book back October of 2015 (yep… for Halloween – what perfection! Especially when I read this chilling blurb):

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.
The Girl With All the Gifts is a groundbreaking thriller, emotionally charged and gripping from beginning to end.

eek *shudders*

Talk about a blurb-jolt. THAT is what I’m talking about when I want to be enticed to read something. Short and sweet (er… not so sweet, in this case) but totally loaded in thrill-potential, and doesn’t really tell me anything other than… OMG I HAVE to find out what this means!!! read more

Amy A. Bartol – The Kricket Series Reading Order

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<— AMY BARTOL SUPER-BARGAIN ALERT!!! This is the author of the much loved “Premonition series” and here is her other one! Great reviews (a ton of ’em!) and all three of the books in this series are super-bargain priced right now! It’s YA sci-fi dystopian.

Kat: All 3 books in the series are on sale…

Nikki: Under Different Stars by Amy Bartol! Love this series!!

About book #1:

Kricket Hollowell never wished upon stars. She was too busy hiding in plain sight, eluding Chicago’s foster care system. As her eighteenth birthday approaches, she now eagerly anticipates the day she’ll stop running and finally find her place in the world. read more