thems0kitty's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
laurieelaberge's review
4.0
4.5 stars
Ça prend du temps avant que de l'action réelle embarque, mais quand elle arrive, on est pas du tout déçu.
Ça prend du temps avant que de l'action réelle embarque, mais quand elle arrive, on est pas du tout déçu.
karen_k77's review
3.0
I feel bad. After the first book, I was very interested in reading the second, and after the second, I was pumped to read the third. And now, unfortunately, the third is not what I wanted.
It wasn't a bad book. And if I stop to think about it, it's a believable story line that seems highly logical. It's not that I couldn't accept what Ryan was putting in front of me.
I just...liked it less than I did the second book, or even the first book, which I definitely had some issues with. I think it was the shift of power when it came to almost anything that happened; in the first two books, for better or worse, the teens and kids were in control. Waverly, Kieran, and Seth especially were instrumental in everything that happened. In this book...there were more adult characters than kid characters, it seemed like, so it lost that fascinating Lord of the Flies aspect that the first two books had.
But I've read books where the adults outweigh the kids in number and influence (they're not hard to find) so that alone wasn't what turned me off. It was the fact that Waverly, Kieran, and Seth, our three protagonists who have done and witnessed terrible and amazing things in the first two books, lost most of their agency. They're the ones who are telling us the story, and for most of the book, they didn't really do anything. Waverly and Kieran spent a good portion of the book depressed and in bed, being manipulated by terrible people, and Seth, whose decision to sneak aboard and be a wild card was one I loved and highly respected, only managed to do some mildly effective graffiti before becoming so sick he had to turn himself in. During most of the book, I got the sense that the story was happening around our narrators, not to them or because of them. And that's not nearly as interesting or entertaining.
That being said, the character progressions were mostly okay. It did feel kind of natural that, after all they've been through, Waverly and Kieran would slip into hopelessness and depression once they're in a place where adults are making all the decisions. Their depression and lethargy felt pretty natural. It just didn't make for good story-telling, considering this is an action-oriented story. And it also meant that they didn't really go through as much character development, considering they spent most of the time lost in their despair. I didn't follow their personal journeys as closely as I did in the first two books.
And Seth. Seth is a different game entirely. Waverly and Kieran were different characters with different actions and beliefs, but their progressions dovetailed nicely together. Seth was the odd man out, who seemed different from everybody. And don't get me wrong, I like characters that struggle with darkness and violence within themselves. It feels real. No one is completely good or bad, and Seth was a good representation of someone who can be both an antagonist and a protagonist. But...too much of his life and story revolved around Waverly. In the second book (he didn't narrate in the first one) it was okay, because it was tempered with him actually contributing to the story line. If his love of Waverly is the foundation, then the second book's story was built on top of that foundation. And everyone needs motivation of some sort. But in the third book, he didn't do much. Just ran around and got sick. So we still had the foundation, the "everything is for Waverly because I love her and want to deserve her" schtick, but there wasn't much to go on top of it. Even during the climax, when Kieran and Waverly were finally doing stuff, and we got to see more of Sarek and Arthur and Tobin, Seth was trapped on a gurney, slowly succumbing to infection. He just felt...irrelevant for most of this book. And he lacked personality, I thought. He was tough and smart, but so was almost everybody else. The only things he had going for him, the only things that interested me, were his inner turmoil about either breaking his father's cycle of violence or continuing it, and his pure sass. He was sarcastic and kind of witty and I loved it, but we didn't get to see it that often. And while I wanted him and Waverly to get together, I'm not entirely sure I believed the way it came about. They didn't really spend a ton of time together, but I guess adversity and danger pushes people together. I was willing to accept it. I eventually started to like them together.
Basically, the characters didn't end up how I expected them to, and I'm not sure I like this alternative. It felt hurried. But I'll move on.
The story also felt a bit hurried. They introduced way too many key players at once, considering they stuck with mostly the same cast of characters for the first two books. Dr. Carver, Jared, the rest of the Council of Elders, Thomas...it was a lot to take in, especially since the narrators, and by extension the readers, didn't really know what was going on half the time. It wasn't a terrible plot, I guess, but it also what I expected or wanted. It felt rushed and messy, and not in the realistic, war-is-chaos way. I give Ryan kudos for making it completely believable, but I wasn't pulled in or fascinated by it as much as I wanted to be.
Believe it or not, I'm not entirely disappointed in this book. It was a good book. Ryan did a good job, considering it's the third in a trilogy and those are often really hard to do. I know authors who completely bungled the third and final books in trilogies, and Ryan is leagues ahead of some of them. But I didn't like Flame as much as I wanted to. And I can't change that. I'd still recommend fans of the series read it and finish up the story, though. It's worth your time.
It wasn't a bad book. And if I stop to think about it, it's a believable story line that seems highly logical. It's not that I couldn't accept what Ryan was putting in front of me.
I just...liked it less than I did the second book, or even the first book, which I definitely had some issues with. I think it was the shift of power when it came to almost anything that happened; in the first two books, for better or worse, the teens and kids were in control. Waverly, Kieran, and Seth especially were instrumental in everything that happened. In this book...there were more adult characters than kid characters, it seemed like, so it lost that fascinating Lord of the Flies aspect that the first two books had.
But I've read books where the adults outweigh the kids in number and influence (they're not hard to find) so that alone wasn't what turned me off. It was the fact that Waverly, Kieran, and Seth, our three protagonists who have done and witnessed terrible and amazing things in the first two books, lost most of their agency. They're the ones who are telling us the story, and for most of the book, they didn't really do anything. Waverly and Kieran spent a good portion of the book depressed and in bed, being manipulated by terrible people, and Seth, whose decision to sneak aboard and be a wild card was one I loved and highly respected, only managed to do some mildly effective graffiti before becoming so sick he had to turn himself in. During most of the book, I got the sense that the story was happening around our narrators, not to them or because of them. And that's not nearly as interesting or entertaining.
That being said, the character progressions were mostly okay. It did feel kind of natural that, after all they've been through, Waverly and Kieran would slip into hopelessness and depression once they're in a place where adults are making all the decisions. Their depression and lethargy felt pretty natural. It just didn't make for good story-telling, considering this is an action-oriented story. And it also meant that they didn't really go through as much character development, considering they spent most of the time lost in their despair. I didn't follow their personal journeys as closely as I did in the first two books.
And Seth. Seth is a different game entirely. Waverly and Kieran were different characters with different actions and beliefs, but their progressions dovetailed nicely together. Seth was the odd man out, who seemed different from everybody. And don't get me wrong, I like characters that struggle with darkness and violence within themselves. It feels real. No one is completely good or bad, and Seth was a good representation of someone who can be both an antagonist and a protagonist. But...too much of his life and story revolved around Waverly. In the second book (he didn't narrate in the first one) it was okay, because it was tempered with him actually contributing to the story line. If his love of Waverly is the foundation, then the second book's story was built on top of that foundation. And everyone needs motivation of some sort. But in the third book, he didn't do much. Just ran around and got sick
Spoiler
so sick they had to chop off an arm, jeezBasically, the characters didn't end up how I expected them to, and I'm not sure I like this alternative. It felt hurried. But I'll move on.
The story also felt a bit hurried. They introduced way too many key players at once, considering they stuck with mostly the same cast of characters for the first two books. Dr. Carver, Jared, the rest of the Council of Elders, Thomas...it was a lot to take in, especially since the narrators, and by extension the readers, didn't really know what was going on half the time. It wasn't a terrible plot, I guess, but it also what I expected or wanted. It felt rushed and messy, and not in the realistic, war-is-chaos way. I give Ryan kudos for making it completely believable, but I wasn't pulled in or fascinated by it as much as I wanted to be.
Believe it or not, I'm not entirely disappointed in this book. It was a good book. Ryan did a good job, considering it's the third in a trilogy and those are often really hard to do. I know authors who completely bungled the third and final books in trilogies, and Ryan is leagues ahead of some of them. But I didn't like Flame as much as I wanted to. And I can't change that. I'd still recommend fans of the series read it and finish up the story, though. It's worth your time.
sydofbee's review
3.0
I know, I know. I tore through it. I liked it, it was a great ending in a way. But I felt so violated by what happened to Waverly and the other girls in the first book that I felt there should have been more resolution. For me, it was worse than sucking the adults out of the airlock because I honestly believe that was a mistake. Even they way they put it ("they harvested my ova") makes Waverly and the other girls sound like a plant, or some other kind of producing object. I really feel this should have been dealt with differently. Obviously Waverly couldn't have cared for 32 kids and the New Horizon women DID carry the embyros to term but... I don't know. This just left me feeling very icky and dissatisfied.
zoesnicholson's review
3.0
After the brilliance of [b:Glow|10174795|Glow (Sky Chasers, #1)|Amy Kathleen Ryan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312847982s/10174795.jpg|15073624] and [b:Spark|12882328|Spark (Sky Chasers, #2)|Amy Kathleen Ryan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335804294s/12882328.jpg|18035545], I had my expectations pretty high for the series conclusion Flame. Unfortunately, however, I think I simply set my expectations a bit too high because, as much as I enjoyed Flame, it just didn't live up to the quality of the first two books in the series.
The rescue operation to save their parents failed, and now the children of the New Horizion are being held captive in their sister ship, the Empyrean. And the only three people who can save everyone - Waverly, Kieran, and Seth - are all separated.
This wasn't quite as grim and unsettling as the first two books. It's more action-packed than the first two, and the majority of it is seeing how the characters react psychologically after all the atrocities and trauma that have induced upon them in [b:Glow|10174795|Glow (Sky Chasers, #1)|Amy Kathleen Ryan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312847982s/10174795.jpg|15073624] and [b:Spark|12882328|Spark (Sky Chasers, #2)|Amy Kathleen Ryan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1335804294s/12882328.jpg|18035545].
As the ending to the series, this wrapped things up nicely. Justice is acquired, but that's clearly no compensation for the characters after everything they've gone through. I suppose I just wanted...more.
Yet, this is still a thought-provoking and intelligently written story. It's one of the best dystopian series I've read recently, and it reminds me why I love the genre so much. Amy Kathleen Ryan takes some very important social trends and she comes up with a thought-provoking and eerily plausible future.
readinginthegarden's review against another edition
5.0
5/5 stars!
Amazing finale. Amazing everything really. One of the most consistent books series I think Iv ever read. Fast paced, thrilling, terrifying, shocking, emotional, exciting I could go on. I well deserved ending for the characters. It ended beautifully. Defiantly a hidden gem of a book series.
Amazing finale. Amazing everything really. One of the most consistent books series I think Iv ever read. Fast paced, thrilling, terrifying, shocking, emotional, exciting I could go on. I well deserved ending for the characters. It ended beautifully. Defiantly a hidden gem of a book series.
anniemariek's review
4.0
My review of Spark is almost entirely devoted to criticizing Waverly and Kieran for being near-sociopaths. While it's true that I spent most of that book annoyed with them and losing track of their motives, I have since then realized that it isn't so much about likable characters--it's about characters who have human feelings that we can relate to. Characters that make sense. Characters that are, well, like real people.
Then again, we're walking a fine line here. Even if you write an incredibly three-dimensional character who makes bad decisions on a regular basis, you run the risk of turning readers off, so to speak. I think sociopathic characters are often fascinating, and apparently I'm not the only one, because Sherlock exists. Sherlock is an excellent example of someone you wouldn't want to know in real life. He's arrogant, socially clueless, and tactless to the point of being downright cruel on a regular basis. And yet, on screen, we love him. It's a fascinating character study. But if you took it too far, we'd just hate him. If he had no human qualities, if he was too far removed from normal for anyone to relate to him, his character wouldn't work. My problem with Spark was that I was losing track of the humanity of Waverly and Kieran. I started losing the ability to relate.
Flame starts out with a bit of the same problem, but here my frustration was more about the fact that all Waverly does for at least a hundred pages was mope around in her room. The focus is not on moving the story forward--it's about going over, coming to terms with, or otherwise dealing with past events. The first half of the book doesn't go anywhere, and I felt like I was just reading a summary of Spark. Focusing on these past events is important to the book, but I still wanted forward motion.
The second half of the book is so much more engaging than the first. Finally, the story moves on. There's more action, more suspense. Kieran, Waverly, and Seth actually do things. I regained a bit of my lost respect for Waverly and Kieran. Both are put into increasingly impossible and morally ambiguous situations, but they react like real people. They make both good and bad decisions, which makes them feel authentic.
And then there's Seth. He never lost my respect, and in this book, he only gained more of it. His past and his somewhat divided role in the series makes him the most fascinating character of all. He has so much courage, even when his situation is more difficult than that of the other two, combined. His love for Waverly made me feel for him, and I wanted to see him succeed. I want a spinoff series about him.
The second half of the book also upped the intensity a few notches, and I loved it. It's darker, and its ideas of right and wrong become even more muddled. There is no black and white in these books--it's all in shades of gray. This, of course, always makes for the best stories. It makes you think and question your beliefs. The physical action of it becomes darker as well, adding more suspense and tension. If the entire series had riveted me as much as the last several chapters of Flame, I would have given it all five stars.
After Spark, I was reluctant to finish this series. Flame, then, reminded me why I enjoyed Glow so much in the first place. It's an intense sci-fi series full of intensity, realistic characters, and of course, lots of spaceship action. Spark may suffer from being the middle of the trilogy, but Flame ends it with a bang. It's a satisfying end, even though I'm still wishing for more of Seth's story.
Similar Books: It's a YA sci-fi novel that takes place in space or on a spaceship like Across the Universe, Inside Out, A Confusion of Princes, Starglass, and Avalon.
Read more of my reviews at http://anniesepicblog.blogspot.com.
Then again, we're walking a fine line here. Even if you write an incredibly three-dimensional character who makes bad decisions on a regular basis, you run the risk of turning readers off, so to speak. I think sociopathic characters are often fascinating, and apparently I'm not the only one, because Sherlock exists. Sherlock is an excellent example of someone you wouldn't want to know in real life. He's arrogant, socially clueless, and tactless to the point of being downright cruel on a regular basis. And yet, on screen, we love him. It's a fascinating character study. But if you took it too far, we'd just hate him. If he had no human qualities, if he was too far removed from normal for anyone to relate to him, his character wouldn't work. My problem with Spark was that I was losing track of the humanity of Waverly and Kieran. I started losing the ability to relate.
Flame starts out with a bit of the same problem, but here my frustration was more about the fact that all Waverly does for at least a hundred pages was mope around in her room. The focus is not on moving the story forward--it's about going over, coming to terms with, or otherwise dealing with past events. The first half of the book doesn't go anywhere, and I felt like I was just reading a summary of Spark. Focusing on these past events is important to the book, but I still wanted forward motion.
The second half of the book is so much more engaging than the first. Finally, the story moves on. There's more action, more suspense. Kieran, Waverly, and Seth actually do things. I regained a bit of my lost respect for Waverly and Kieran. Both are put into increasingly impossible and morally ambiguous situations, but they react like real people. They make both good and bad decisions, which makes them feel authentic.
And then there's Seth. He never lost my respect, and in this book, he only gained more of it. His past and his somewhat divided role in the series makes him the most fascinating character of all. He has so much courage, even when his situation is more difficult than that of the other two, combined. His love for Waverly made me feel for him, and I wanted to see him succeed. I want a spinoff series about him.
The second half of the book also upped the intensity a few notches, and I loved it. It's darker, and its ideas of right and wrong become even more muddled. There is no black and white in these books--it's all in shades of gray. This, of course, always makes for the best stories. It makes you think and question your beliefs. The physical action of it becomes darker as well, adding more suspense and tension. If the entire series had riveted me as much as the last several chapters of Flame, I would have given it all five stars.
After Spark, I was reluctant to finish this series. Flame, then, reminded me why I enjoyed Glow so much in the first place. It's an intense sci-fi series full of intensity, realistic characters, and of course, lots of spaceship action. Spark may suffer from being the middle of the trilogy, but Flame ends it with a bang. It's a satisfying end, even though I'm still wishing for more of Seth's story.
Similar Books: It's a YA sci-fi novel that takes place in space or on a spaceship like Across the Universe, Inside Out, A Confusion of Princes, Starglass, and Avalon.
Read more of my reviews at http://anniesepicblog.blogspot.com.