Jedi by Knight

Today we have another “themed” reading round-up.  Superpowered teens are close my heart as I have, in the deep dark recesses of my mind, a trilogy of stories about a group of teens with elemental superpowers.  They’ve lived in there since I was in high school, and maybe someday they’ll see the light of day.  In the meantime, here’s some other books to help you get your fix.

 Just as a reminder:

5/5–I would buy this
4/5–I will re-read this
3/5–I might read this again
2/5–I have no interest in reading this again
1/5–I couldn’t finish this

 The Young Elites (Marie Lu)

 3.5/5 stars

A new series from the author of Legend, and it begins with an origin story…of a kind.  Adelina Amouteru, marked as a survivor of the blood fever, runs away from home and ends up joining a group of other survivors who have also developed special powers; they are called the Young Elites, and they mean to use their powers to change society.

There are a lot of grey characters here, which I loved, but the world-building was not as good/developed as Legend.  The book ends in a way I did not expect, and I felt it like a gut punch.  Looking forward to seeing what comes next in the series.

 

Dangerous (Shannon Hale)

4/5 stars

A foray into sci-fi from one of my favorite fairy tale authors.  A group of teenagers led by Maisie “Danger” Brown is gifted with powers by alien technology and must use those powers to stop an alien threat.  It actually reminded me a bit of the Lorien Legacies series (see below), if LL had been better written and all shoved into one book.

I found the characters to be well-developed and quite diverse (the protagonist herself is missing an arm, but uses technology to compensate).  My only downsides were the invading aliens were a little lame, and I could have done with a little less of the teenage romantic drama.  The story does have distinct parts to it, but I’m undecided as to whether it would have been better served by a series instead.  Honestly, it’s kind of a relief to have a stand-alone YA novel!

 

The Revenge of Seven (Pittacus Lore)

3/5 stars

This installment of the Lorien Legacies series raises the stakes for the Garde as their enemy Setrákus Ra reveals himself on Earth.  I have been a little critical of these books, but they are enjoyable in a summer blockbuster/popcorn flick kind of way, and I think they are improving as the plot gets more complex and characters get better development.  I think this was the best so far.

 

The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan)

3/5 stars

The final book of the Heroes of Olympus series was a nice finale in some ways, but fell short in others.  I did enjoy getting to know Reyna better, but it seems a little late in the game to start the backstory of a “new” character, and as a result “older” characters like Percy and Annabeth felt a bit crowded out.  I very much enjoyed the end (or maybe the beginning?) of Nico and Leo’s stories, though Leo’s was a bit vague.  And I was disappointed in the final 2 battles, which went by much too quickly and without much surprise, unlike the real climax of the battle of New York from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I enjoyed the series, but I will be glad to see Riordan move on to something new with Norse mythology.