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Book Review: Light by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
light-michael-grant-book-cover Light is the sixth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here. The fourth book was Plague, which I have reviewed here. The fifth book was Fear, which I have reviewed here.

In Light the barrier has become transparent and the outside world peer into the strange world of the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). A world without adults and where some kids have powers. The darkness has taken a body, the child of Caine & Diana, calling herself Gaia.

Gaia is bent on bringing death and destruction; for no other reason than the fact that she’s evil. It’s the EndGame and what an awesome one it is. Some characters will live and others will die. The characters are prey being hunted by Gaia, an enemy who aims to hunt them to extinction.

Light is anything but predictable and so much happens. The plot is as we’ve come to expect from Grant, fast-paced.

Light is thrilling, captivating and a book that was so good I didn’t want it to end. A brilliant finale in the Gone Series.

The ending includes the aftermath, what happens once the barrier comes down. I’m not ashamed to say that some of the final scenes brought a tear to my eye including: Sam & Quinn getting their friendship back to how it was, the ending for the two gay characters – Edilio & Roger, what happened to Brianna (Breeze) & Dahra and Orc’s redemption.

Overall Light is the best in the Gone Series, closely followed by Lies. The Gone Series is worth reading from start to finish. Here are the books in order: Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear and Light.

Review soon,

Antony

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Book Review: A Survival Guide for Life by Bear Grylls

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
bear-grylls-survival-guide-to-life-book-cover Bear Grylls shares the wisdom he’s learned through life in A Survival Guide for Life. Life can be difficult at times, in A Survival Guide for Life Bear writes how to not only survive these times but thrive in them. His positivity in this book is inspiring and infectious.

Bear gives advice like:

  • Have bravely to face your fears.
  • Failure is the key to future success. If you’re failing your making progress towards success.
  • Set your goal and focus on the journey not the destination.
  • Be the most enthusiastic person you know.

Over the 72 short chapters (each chapter being 2-3 pages at most) there isn’t a single wasted word. That said, I would have preferred Bear to tell more of his personal story.

He quotes people he admires including the famous, friends, colleagues and the bible.

When I bought A Survival Guide for Life I didn’t realise that he was a Christian and initially it didn’t bother me. However as the book progressed the tone was preachy at times and at one point he even recommended that the reader sign up to an Alpha Course. I also felt like he was atheist-bashing at some points. His religious views made me physically sigh on more than one occasion.

The presentation of A Survival Guide for Life was excellent. A good selection and use of fonts, as well as spacing created a consistent style that was pleasing to the eye of the reader.

If you ignore the Christianity in A Survival Guide for Life, then book is great. The wisdom he imparts is the sort of life lessons we should be teaching all children in our society. His his upbeat tone is captivating and makes it a joy to read. A Survival Guide for Life by Bear Grylls is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony



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Book Review: Fear by Michael Grant

By Amazon, Books & Authors, ReviewsNo Comments
fear-michael-grant-cover Fear is fifth book in the Gone Series. The first book was Gone, which I have reviewed here. The second book was Hunger, which I reviewed here. The third book was Lies, which I have reviewed here. The fourth book was Plague, which I have reviewed here.

In Fear the kids are still trapped in the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone) by the impenetrable dome and things are about to get a lot worse.

Astrid is living alone in the wilderness after events in Plague. But after noticing a black stain rising over the dome, she returns to Lake Tramonto and to Sam. If the dome goes completely black it will leave the kids in the dark. With no sunlight how will they grow food? Kids will panic, have accidents, starve and quickly die.

Meanwhile King Caine is continuing his reign of Perdido Beach with psychopath Penny. But when she goes too far he is forced to make a difficult choice.

Penny switches sides joining Drake and the Darkness. The darkness is after Dianna’s unborn baby. Why does it want the baby and will it succeed? Little Pete is surprisingly back as something. Pete will discover his new true nature and so will the reader.

Fear starts with Connie Temple outside the dome. This outside perspective adds another dimension to the story.

Astrid, Dianne, Little Pete and Caine characters developed well. This development gave the characters a strong sense of realism. Sex between some characters was used to indicate the characters maturity and the importance of their relationships to one another. These scenes were an expected progression and written appropriately for a YA book.

In Fear no new kids develop new powers. This was a missed opportunity to develop the storyline. The storyline was captivating as always, with a great dome-related twist at the end. However the ending was anticlimactic and left open. The reader had to many unanswered questions at the end to feel satisfied.

Overall Fear is a great instalment in the Gone Series. It’s good to know that it isn’t the last in the series. Fear is available to buy on Amazon.

Review soon,

Antony

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Lancashire Science Festival 2014

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Life, Love & Relationships, Reviews, Technology, The WebNo Comments
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Lancashire Science Festival: Sign.

Last weekend I dragged boyfriend-A along to Lancashire Science Festival. We arrived, signed in and were given a programmes, maps and visitor passes. It was being hosted by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), which had a special significance for me as UCLAN was where I completed Nursing studies sometime ago. It was nice to see that the campus has developed, while at the same time keeping some of the buildings that I studied and lived in. Walking around triggered many happy memories for me, but I wasn’t there for a trip down memory lane. We were there to explore all things science. All things geek.

Which started with Titan, a singing, dancing and joke-cracking robot. See photos below (click any image for full size photo):

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Lancashire Science Festival Selfie with Titan.

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Titan The Robot.

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Titan 2

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Titan 3

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Titan 4.

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Titan 5.

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Titan 6. Mr Red Eyes.

Then boyfriend-A and I listened to a fascinating talk from @Drsurvival entitled Power Up Your Brain. I enjoyed the talk, but it would have been great to have two talks: one aimed at children & families and one aimed purely at adults. This was because I would have liked @Drsurvival to go into more of the biological and physiological detail.

We discovered a hall that had so many activities from a wide range of science and engineering organisations. My particular highlight was the CSI tent, where we learned more about the process of investigating crime. Then it was time for lunch, followed by Jo Blows Stuff Up!

Lancashire Science Festival ignited my imagination for everything science, engineering and technical. There was so much to get round, we spent most of the day there and only got through a small fraction of the activities on offer. I would have loved to have more time to do: the Science Dome Planetarium, Zoo Bus and Flash Bang Science. The free talks were over subscribed meaning that even pre-booking I couldn’t get tickets to attend Davros – An Audience with Davros and Science of Sherlock free talks. But I’m sure we’ll get around to some of these activities and talks next year.

Lancashire Science Festival is free fun for all the family. There were loads of young children there, loads of activities for them and they looked like they were having a fantastic time.

My advice on how to work the day: Arrive early and do the open activities in the morning. Then pre-book a talk or two for the afternoon.

Write soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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