Dustborn – The Bookish Mutant

Hi there, bibliophiles, and welcome to the last Goodreads Monday of 2020! (Whoa…)

Falling Cat | Know Your Meme — When that feeling of “thank god 2020 is almost over” combined with “WAIT THE YEAR IS ALMOST OVER” hits

Anyway, Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme created by Lauren’s Page Turners. All you have to do to participate is pick a book from your Goodreads TBR, and explain why you want to read it.

Here we have yet another book that I put on my TBR this year and completely forgot about until a week ago…but hey, it’s nice to remember those kinds of books again. Plus, I’m always up for some good sci-fi.

Let’s begin, shall we?

GOODREADS MONDAY (12/28/20)–UNDER FALLING SKIES by Kate MacLeod

Blurb from Goodreads:

Scout Shannon’s whole family died the day the Space Farers dropped an asteroid on their domed city. Now she lives alone, out in the wild with only her dogs for company. She prefers it that way.

But Scout finds herself at a crossroads. One road leads back to a quiet life snug under the protective dome of a city. The other road leads to a life in the rebellion, a life of adventure and excitement but also danger. Dare she try to find the rebels hiding in the hills?

Then a chance encounter with a stranger from the other side of the galaxy threatens to derail what remains of Scout’s life. The entire galaxy awaits her, if she survives the next four days.

SO WHY DO I WANT TO READ THIS?

As of now, Under Falling Skies has a fairly low average rating on Goodreads (3.39), but that’s only from…28 ratings and only six reviews? And it came out in 2017? Jeez…

This novel is advertised as not only having a sci-fi appeal, but having an “Old West” vibe too, so that could have an interesting execution. I’m certainly drawn in by the premise of Scout, alone (save for her dogs) and trying to hunt down the last fragments of a rebellion in an unforgiving wasteland. Kind of Dustborn vibes, but with more space opera appeal.

It looks like this one’s self-published, and it’s always good to boost the voices of indie/self-published authors, so maybe in doing this blog post (and hopefully reading it soon), I can get the word around and get some more readers. Plus, it’s only $0.99 for the Kindle edition on Amazon at present…

Today’s song:

That’s it for the last Goodreads Monday of 2020! Have a wonderful rest of your day, and take care of yourselves!

Happy Wednesday, ~~my dudes~~ bibliophiles!

I think this may be the first sci-fi eARC that I’ve ever gotten, so it’s nice to get something from my favorite genre. I’d read Bowman’s Contagion duology beforehand and enjoyed it, so I figured that it would be interesting to delve into her newest project. And while it wasn’t without its flaws, Dustborn was a perfectly tense dystopian novel!

Enjoy this eARC review!

Dustborn–Erin Bowman

The only world that Delta of Dead River has ever known is a wasteland. In her dwindling pack, she and her family struggle to get by. But when her pack is raided, she is forced to escape, armed only with the clothes on her back and her sister’s newborn baby.

Delta soon discovers that the world beyond her pack is lawless, filled with rulers who drill fear into colonies of helpless workers, and secrets that are best kept under wraps. And to make matters worse, she has a target on her back–literally; branded on her back is a map that leads to the Verdant, a lush and green promised land that everyone in the Wastes seeks to get their hands on. With the help of a childhood friend, she may be the first to find it–but some things are too good to be true.

1/2) duncan-shepherd: #✨ ✨ GLOW UP ✨ ✨ Scavenger to Jedi | Rey ... — The cover gives me the most IMMACULATE Rey vibes

Thank you to Edelweiss+ and HMH Books for Young Readers for giving me this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Goodreads synopsis describes this novel as a mashup of Mad Max and Gunslinger Girl, and even though I’ve never seen/read either of those, I definitely see where the vibe comes from. Dustborn is a tense and twisty dystopian novel, with notes of classic Westerns.

First, CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW PRETTY THIS COVER IS? The color scheme. The art. The typeface. THE REY VIBES. Even though this definitely wasn’t my favorite novel, I wouldn’t say no to a poster of this for my room.

Now…[ahem] I should probably talk about the book now, shouldn’t I?

Let’s start off with Delta. I wasn’t a huge fan of her character–she was that classic, dystopian teenager who’s been hardened by all of the horrific things she’s seen and done, and has built up this impenetrably tough skin as a result. She’s closed off, and she thinks she knows everything, even though she’s…what, 17? I get it, living as a semi-nomad in a barren wasteland does some nasty stuff to the brain, but it didn’t make for a very likable character. It did, however, make her a nice guinea pig for some well-needed character development. Plus, that kind of character is the perfect kind of character to interact with a baby…because she KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT CHILDREN, AND IT’S HILARIOUS.

As far as the other characters went, I wasn’t super attached to any of them. I felt ambivalent about most of them–I didn’t hate anybody, but I didn’t want to die for anybody, either. Delta and Asher’s friends-to-lovers dynamic was cute, even though the romance felt a bit like it was needlessly shoehorned in there to appease the Teenage™️ audience, but it wasn’t egregiously bad, or anything.

The plot itself was easily the most enjoyable part of the novel for me. Filled with rich imagery and no shortage of fascinating plot twists, Dustborn definitely kept me guessing in the best ways. Still not my ideal novel, but Bowman is the master of tense sci-fi, where it be in a lifeless wasteland (this one) or on an alien planet with the dangers of a deadly virus (Contagion). I liked the latter better (even though book 2 wasn’t as good), but this was still entertaining.

Overall, a bleak dystopia that was lacking in likable characters, but made up for it with its imagery and plot twists. 3 stars!