Posts Tagged 'action'

Stars and Smoke by Marie Lu

Published October 18, 2023 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Genre: Action Mystery

Winter Young is the biggest pop star in the world, but he is still reeling from the untimely death of his older brother. Despite his enormous popularity he can’t help but wonder if his life is fairly pointless, unlike his brother who was in the peace corp. So, when he is approached by a secret agency to help take down a powerful trafficker he thinks this might be his chance to do something important. He does not have much time to train, however, so he is paired with Sydney Cosette, a long time secret agent despite her young age. The two get prepared as best they can, but then they must go undercover knowing that things could get very dangerous if their true motivations are revealed. As Winter gets to know the daughter of the criminal they are trying to take down, he quickly realizes that every situation has many people involved and is difficult to navigate at times so that the wrong people don’t get hurt. Can he and Sydney fulfill the goals they set out to do with this mission? Will they become more than friends along the way?

This story is fun and exciting with many suspenseful action scenes. Technically, there is a little bit of romance, but I would not let that deter any boys who enjoy action from picking this one up. It very much reads like a spy novel and the characters are engaging from the start with several revelations coming out about both of their backgrounds. There are many surprises in regards to what they think they know about this mission and the ending is very exciting and dramatic. Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys a good action spy adventure.

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti

Published November 17, 2016 Adventure , Fantasy Leave a Comment
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zeroes

Genre:  Fantasy

# of Pages:  546

A group of teens who all have unexplained talents have found each other one by one and formed a group they call the Zeroes.  They all have different ideas for how to handle their bizarre powers, however.  Bellweather can take the energy of a group and focus it on one goal and he believes they should stick together and try to do important things with their powers.  Flicker is blind, but can see using other people’s eyes.  Scam has a mysterious voice that will say whatever it takes to get him what he wants and often has disastrous results.  Crash has the ability to crash electrical devices and because of that has struggled to find a place where her powers are anything but destructive.  Anonymous can disappear and be forgotten in any situation, which has led to a lonely life.  Finally, Mob can change the energy of a crowd to feel whatever she wants it to.  Scam had previously distanced himself from the rest of the zeroes when they had a disagreement, but it forced to call on them for help when a video of him using his voice goes viral and he is hauled in by cops for answers about a local bank robbery.  Can the zeroes come together to help one of their own or will the situation just get worse as they try to con their way out of it?  Will the situation bring them together or drive them further apart?

This has been on my reading list for awhile and it took a little bit to get into the characters, but eventually the story really takes off and readers enjoy a lot of adventure and action.  The talents of the characters take a lot of explaining as some are more complicated and require examples to fully understand.  All in all, fans of fantasy adventures such as the Michael Vey series or Blackout will enjoy the first in this series.

Firestorm by David Klass

Published May 22, 2008 Adventure , Award Winners , Fantasy , RAC 12 Comments
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Genre: Fantasy

Age Level: 14 and up

# of Pages: 289 p.

RAC Book: Yes

2008 Iowa Teen Award Winner

Jack lives with his parents in a normal town, where he excels in football and other sports as well as academics. For Jack life comes pretty easy, which is why he can never understand why his parents never want him to shine like he knows he can. They are always encouraging him to let others win and try to blend in more. One night after a particularly great football performance, he notices a strange man following him. When he tells his parents his dad immediately takes him as far away as he can while explaining that they are not his real parents. He does not tell him why they have lied to him all these years or who his real parents are before they are ambushed and Jack is forced to flee for his life.

As Jack tries to figure out why he is special and what his task is, he comes across many different types of characters. Some are more helpful than others at helping him find his destiny. He soon learns that he was sent back from the future in order to stop the world from making terrible environmental mistakes that humans will pay for dearly in the future. Those who come to help him tell him he must find the firestorm in order to preserve the earth from the evils of humans, but he has no idea what firestorm is and no matter how hard he tries there is always someone trying to hurt him.

The idea of a young man being chosen for something great without him knowing it has been used many times in young adult books, but the idea of Jack having to save the world from humans destroying it through different types of pollution is a new twist. Obviously, it’s hard to understand how he can possibly save the world from all humans, but it is obvious that this is one of a trilogy so he will have many battles to fight in order to save the earth. There is a lot of action and fighting sequences that fans of action movies will enjoy. Most of the story is well-described, but the ending happens pretty fast so readers will have to read very closely in order to find out how everything is resolved for the time being. The ending is a little unsatisfying, but part of that is probably due to the fact that there are two more in the series.

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