The Amber Project

The Amber Project by J.N. Chaney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Check out my blog to see Reviews of Book and Movies, and check out some Recipes!

The Amber Project opens us up to a futuristic world, about 200 years after the spread of a toxic gas known as the Variant (which spread in 2157). The gas steadily spread across the globe killing all living things it came into contact with and drastically changing the atmosphere. The sky is now purple, the grass is now blue and there are some predators who managed to adapt and change, but little is known about them.

An underground city was established and cordoned off and sealed from the Variant. The population is controlled by 3 main sections, the military/education, scientific and the matron. The three bodies must act together in order for there to be any order in this new world. The matron is in charge of all of the mothers that birth the population. Children are made through contacts and a mother must have the right genetic coding in order to be eligible to be a mother. Women see mothering as a sign of honor and stability and began having children as early as 14.

Once children reach the age of 7 they are taken from their homes (only run and managed by their mother and any possible siblings) and placed into the education system. Mara is one of the mothers with almost perfect genetic coding which causes her to be chosen for a specific scientific program, allowing her to fuse new experiments with her eggs to produce a possible child that can exist on the surface of the Earth with the Variant. This child is named Terry.

If you want to know more, than you must read the book. Suffice to say that the book is loaded with a devastating new world, political intrigue and power struggles as well as the troubles of growing into one self with the added side effects of being a scientific experiment.

The story is told through multiple points of view to give a brilliant all-around look into the world. In addition, there are answered questions through the release of past and current audio files and text to help the reader understand what has happened and is happening in the futuristic Earth.

Chaney has managed to brilliantly fortify a place within a genre rife with half-hearted attempts of literature and created a gripping new series! I can't wait to read on. This was an easy 5 stars and hard to put down.

** I received a copy of this book for free with the For Love of a Book Advanced Reader Opportunity Program

View all my reviews

The Historian's Tale

The Historian's Tale is written by K.B. Shaw and is the 1st Book in the NeWorld Paper Series.  This is a sci-fi/fantasy book filed with intrigue and highly imaginative story telling.  The book is based around a man on the brink of 18 named Fallon.

The Historian's Tale paints a world that operates with little to no emotion and a plethora or rules and order.  Children come about based upon contracts which decide which parent will get to keep the child.  Once a contract of coupling is complete, people will go their separate ways and the parent with the contract will raise the child.  If a man is not born with a contract he will be "stemmed", and therefore unable to provide any offspring.  This is a way to retain order and to prevent over population.  (Kind of sounds like something the Chinese would come up with). 

Shaw did an impeccable job with descriptions of the world and the development of the story and the characters.  Whilst reading this book I found myself vested in the main characters and wanting to know them more and was rooting for them.  The concepts that have been created and the slight reference to Marx are brilliant.  I don't want to give any of the details that unfold away so I will leave it at that.

As a ward of his school institute, Fallon will be left out on his own in the near future when he turns 18 and has no idea what will become of him.  After witnessing a heinous crime occur, he finds himself constantly looking over his shoulder.  The many rules of NeWorld do not provide for my ingenuity or imagination, which leaves Fallon's ability to draw anything in detail from memory an ability that must be hidden.  Without warning he is then purchased by a wealthy woman to be indentured help.  Nothing that has happened to him in life thus far is going to prepare him for what is to come. 

I give this book 5/5 stars, as I was engrossed in it and was finding any small amount of time that I could spare to read more into the story.  I was hooked from the beginning and I love all of the thought provoking aspects that Shaw has added into this tale.  I cannot wait to read Book 2 and get more involved with the story.  It was a pleasure "watching" the story develop before my very eyes.  This would make for an excellent movie or mini series.  If you are into sci-fi, fantasy, romance, new adult, young adult, mystery, suspense, and fiction this book is definitely for you. 

*I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Mirian

I received this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

Mirian is written by D.S. England.  It is book about the port city of Mirian and the people that reside there; mostly The Watch, the mercenary Talon, and other various riff-raff characters here and there. 

England did a wonderful job of setting up the story, there is a lot of action going on and the the story definitely has a dark, almost desperate tone.  The reader can connect with the characters and truly feel their struggle.  All main characters are well defined and described and I loved how there was a great all-around view of events from many different points of view.  This was written with a great fluidity so that you did not feel lost with the change in view point. 

Mirian definitely hits the ground running with instant intrigue and betrayal.  There are definitely many desperate moments, and also moments of singular character development and personal perseverance.  I definitely did not see the way the "plague" aspect was going to play out and thought that it was well-imagined by the author. 

I liked Seline the most, although she wasn't one of the main characters, and I liked to be in the mind of Theal, even though it came with many unexpected surprises.  The book does a great job of capturing the frantic situation that each character finds themselves in.  Captain Nathan Tam, definitely is a great example of an honorable man faced with a desperate time. 

The main detracting forces for this story are the same as most books I have read of late...  Typos and grammar issues.  In addition there were also several formatting issues in the Kindle format where a sentence would stop in the middle and big up tabbed down in the beginning of a new paragraph. 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the distractions.  I give the story a 4/5 stars, and would love to see a cleaned up version to earn the 5 stars this book can easily obtain.  Mirian ends with the intent on another installment into the series and left me with curiosity and yearning to know what is in the next story.  I will definitely be reading book two.  If you are into intrigue, betrayal, mystery suspense, action, character development, darker themed books, paranormal/fantasy than this book is definitely for you!