Sand by Hugh Howey

Synopsis:  The world as we know it is covered in sand, thousands of feet of sand.  Divers venture into the sand to look for artifacts of the lost world, ultimately looking for the lost world of Danvar.  A family of siblings, each with his or her own diving ability must reunite and love each other as a family to overcome the war that is rapidly approaching them.  We see the love between brothers and sisters, the love for a lost father, the love of an absent mother, all of which once finally embraced come together in a story of epic proportions.

My review:  Not in many many moons had I been so excited to read a book.  Hugh Howey has a way of writing something so well that you actually feel like you are a part of it.  In Wool I felt like I was running the stairs with Juliet, In The Hurricane I felt like I was there with Daniel weathering the storm, and in Sand I truly felt like I was diving deep with Palmer or Vic into the sand.  I could see the colors, I could feel the grit in my mouth.  How someone is able to do this so well is beyond me.  I am even someone who takes words and puts them on paper and still I am baffled how Hugh is able to do this better than most anyone else.

Almost all of Hugh's books are written in a world that does not exist.  In Sand, the world has been taken over by years and years of sand, covering the entire world as we know it with thousands of feet of sand.  The idea of diving into sand and exploring the world below is genius, Hugh might be the first guy to think of something like this.  I cannot even comprehend his ability to think of things like this, his imagination amazes me.  I love how he is able to take the simplest of things and make them his own.  Calling money coin.  Coming up with the idea of a sand sailboat called a sarfer.  It's these little things that make you feel like you are part of the story, that you are there with Conner trying to save people in the sand.  It is beautiful.

I truly feel like Hugh Howey is a literary revolutionary.  He is literally changing the book/publishing industry.  Not only is his writing fantastic, his ideas are unparalleled.  How he does it again with Sand, is beyond me.  I will save you the effort of searching the internet to buy a copy.  Buy the kindle version or paperback on Amazon, or like me buy a signed copy from Hugh directly.  You will enjoy this book, this world, this author.  Only issue with reading Hugh's books is that all other books from this point on will be disappointment.  True story.

My rating:  10
Pages:  336
Author website:  http://www.hughhowey.com/

Monsters by Peter Cawdron

Synopsis:  A meteor passes by earth leaving behind some kind of dust or debris that overtime changes all the animals into giant monsters.  Dogs the size of horses, ants the size of a human foot, leaving humans no longer at the top of the food chain.  As times goes on the monsters get bigger and there are less and less people.  Bruce and his son James must learn to fight off not only the monsters of the animal kingdom but also those monsters trying to take back claim of a world that no longer belongs to them.

My review:  I felt like this book was a bit slow going in the beginning but now I realize that a picture needed to be painted before I could appreciate the work as a whole.  After about 100 pages I could not put this book down.  I became a big fan of James and his view of the way the world should be.  There is quite a bit of story line going on throughout this book and I don't want to give away too much in the synopsis so I kept it as brief as possible.  One thing I really liked was how Peter, the author was able to describe the monsters, I could truly picture them in my mind.  In the end I just enjoyed the uniqueness of this whole story and while this is the first book I have read of Peter's it will definitely not be the last.

My rating:  7
Pages:  342
Author website:  http://thinkingscifi.wordpress.com/

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Synopsis:  The narrator John (or Jonah) sets out to write a book about what happened on the day America dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  He starts by looking into the life of one of the inventors of the atomic bomb, Dr. Felix Hoenikker.  He begins by writing letters to his family and begins communicating with Hoenikker's youngest son, Newt.  While he is investigating this family he discovers that the doctor also invented a substance he called ice-nine.  Hoenikker's goal was to figure out a way to solidify mud so US Marines would not have to wade through it in battle.  Ice-nine instantly turns all water to ice with a melting temperature of 140 degrees.  Each of Hoenikker's three children are now in possession of a small piece of ice-nine.  He runs into Newt on a plane while traveling to the island of San Lorenzo and is eventually introduced to the eldest son, Frank.  It is though Frank that Jonah assume the roll of President of the island since the current President, "Papa" Monzano, is dying of cancer.  In order to save himself the suffering of dying a slow and painful death "Papa" eats a small amount of the ice-nine, instantly turning himself to ice.  As they are moving his body to a funeral pyre, part of him falls into the water and turns the oceans and all water in the world to ice, essentially destroying the world and almost all life with it.

My review:  I read this book because one of my favorite authors, Michael Bunker, is releasing a fan fiction book based in this "world".  This book to me was just okay, better than some of the Kurt Vonnegut I have read but I can see why someone would decide to write a fan fiction story based off this book.  The possibilities are endless.  Only the last few pages actually touch on the world in a post-apocalyptic state after the world has frozen over and all plant and wildlife has been killed off.  There are an infinite number of stories that can spread from this point on.  I wonder if Kurt wrote a sequel to this story, I would be interested to see his idea of the world after the book ends and his expansion or ideas of the end of the world from this point on.  While I have not been a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut's work, I do feel better that I have experienced his stories for myself and not just from the spoken or written word of others.

My rating:  6
Pages: 287
Author website: http://www.vonnegut.com/

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (Ashes Trilogy Book # 1)

Synopsis:  After what we assume is an EMP attack of some kind, Alex while out camping in the woods needs to try and figure out what the hell happened and how to get back to safety.  After the EMP it seems that most people have dropped dead and the younger ones seem to have "Changed" into some kind of strange flesh eating creatures.  She meets up with Tom while trying to take care of eight year old Ellie, both of whom she has run into in the woods.  She must protect them while finding protection from Tom, an army Vet on home on leave from Afghanistan.  Alex, recently diagnosed with a brain tumor seems to be okay along with some others after the EMP, she has not turned yet.  She is separated from both Tom and Ellie but taken in by a group of survivors in a town called Rule.  While she is not quite sure of who to trust she is also battling with feelings for Tom and now for one of the survivors in camp named Chris.  She is not sure why she has been Spared and others have been Changed but the story continues into book two and we shall see where the story takes us from there.

My review: This book is hard to rate at this point because it is only one third of the story.  By the end of the trilogy I might raise the rating simply because I know the full story.  The word zombie is not used in the book at all but these Changed people are clearly some kind of zombie.  I am very interested to see why some people have changed and others not.  Because this book is YA, it a very quick and easy read even if it is close to 500 pages.  This book was recommended to me by a coworker and I am glad she did.  This was great read, I mean who doesn't like a post apocalyptic, woodland survival story with friggin zombies.  I will absolutely be reading the other two books in the trilogy as well.

My rating: 7
Pages: 496
Author website: http://www.ilsajbick.com/