Search This Blog

Saturday, December 31, 2011

"Across the Universe" by Beth Revis

Release Date: January 11th, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: eBook
Age Group: Young Adult

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.



We start the story with Amy and her parents being frozen, so they can be loaded onto the Godspeed and be awoken three hundred years into the future, on a new planet. Her parents are both very important to rebuilding the world on this new planet and Amy goes along, because she doesn't want to be without them. The part while they are being prepped and frozen is equally terrifying and fascinating. It seems like a wholly unpleasant experience, the being frozen, but it's also an amazing thing that people would volunteer to do this for the good of their people.

We end up in the future and someone has unfrozen Amy early. She wakes up pretty terrified and completely unsure of what is happening. She finds out that her parents are still frozen and that she is still aboard the Godspeed. She meets Elder, who is one of the inhabitants of the Godspeed and is about her age. Elder is supposed to be taking over as leader of the Godspeed and is currently in training. Amy is pretty unsure of him and everything at first, but being trapped on a spaceship full of strangers and without your parents will make anyone a little wary.

It turns out that there are a lot of secrets hidden on the Godspeed. Some of them Elder doesn't want to be a part of or go along with and others he might just be responsible for. Regardless, these secrets are going to change the Godspeed and it's inhabitants. There is so much mystery behind everything that goes on aboard the ship and I really liked how we are never sure what's real and what is an illusion. Once we start to learn some of the ships secrets, the fate of the people on board becomes even more of a mystery. This is the first in a series, so we learn some of what is going on, but only just enough to keep us pining for the next installment.

This is actually the first YA sci-fi book I have ever read. I'm fascinated by the idea of people living in space. I could never be comfortable in a completely enclosed space for my entire life, but I loved reading the story of these characters and their lives onboard the ship. Beth Revis is an excellent writer and turned such a small space into a whole world. I really liked Amy as the female lead, she wasn't too accepting of anything and really just wanted to find out the truth. Even after she met Elder and they started getting closer, she wasn't content to just believe whatever she was told. She might be lost and mostly alone, but she was still her own person. I liked Elder, but I still feel like we don't know enough about him. Having spent his whole life aboard a space ship, he is a little awkward and doesn't really know how to be with people, but as the story went along his character started to become more defined. I am really looking forward to getting to know him more in book two.

I'm glad I decided to give this one a shot and I am 100% sold on this series. I'm sure the second book will give us even more of this amazing story and who wouldn't look forward to spending a little more time aboard the Godspeed :0)

10 comments:

  1. I'm glad you liked it! I've been wanting to read this for a while. (: Maybe I'll finally get around to it!

    P.S. If you liked YA sci-fi, I recommend Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan. (:

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is on my TBR list and I totally want to read it. :)

    Nerd Girls at Books to the Sky

    ReplyDelete
  3. Im reading it now and I'm having a hard time with it.. Ive also never read sic fi, but i find myself easily distracted and just not interested in the story. Im only on page 150, it IS getting better, especially when she woke up (not a spoiler, this is part of the synopsis), but maybe the awesomeness starts from now :P

    great review!

    - juhina

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't believe I STILL haven't read this one yet. I bought it when Borders was going out of business and it's been hanging around on my shelf ever since. I think it's definitely time to move it up the TBR.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a friend who have read the two books in these series... I saw your review here... and it reminded me of why I wanted to read it so much, but then again... waiting a year to read the next book? Oh, I would die to have to wait so much =S
    Good review yours, though =]
    And it must be a great book xD

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really enjoyed this book. I'm ready to read A Million Suns now. Very good review.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have this one to read - my friend at University bought it me for Christmas.
    Your review makes me want to read it NOW!

    Dani @ Pen to Paper

    (Entered giveaway as Dani Cotton)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I loved this one too!!! I still haven't been able to pick up the next book, but I really really want to! Great review :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I absolutely adored this book! I can't wait to read the sequel - the characters were so likeable and the ending WOW what a shock :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Haven't read this one yet, it's in my bookshelf tough! Looking forward to reading it!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...