"Fear" Keeps the Suspense Going

Five books in, Fear retains all the great qualities of the previous four books, even as the red shirt, climatic battle with Drake and death of some other baddie starts feeling repetitive. Clocking in at over 500 pages, this is one of the longest books in the series by far, and Grant maintains the mounting suspense, surprising (and shocking) twists, and realistic character development that has made the series so compelling. However, beneath all the action, horror, and suspense, one can sense that the author was running out of steam, making this book a little more uneven than the first few.

I can never figure out who the kids on the cover are supposed to be...

The looming crisis in this volume is the impending darkness of the sphere, stemming from the gaiaphage and blackening the barrier, eventually obliterating all sky light in the FAYZ. Astrid has exiled herself from the new communities as a form of punishment for her desperate act of the previous book--and she is easily one of the best-written characters in this volume. Sam and his crew have set up a new community at the lake they had found, and enjoyed four months of relative prosperity. Things in Perdido Beach are not as peaceful, however, as one of Quinn's fishermen is sentenced to being tortured by the visions of Penny, who herself begins to plot a coup against "King Caine" when he is pressured by Quinn to get rid of her. Meanwhile, Drake is on a mission for his master: to bring Diana, and her baby, to its lair, and Petey has become a disembodied spirit with the ability to manipulate living things--often with horrific results.

Things go south fast in this book, but not before a good deal of time is taken to catch up the reader on the past four months and spend some time with each set of characters, which slows down the momentum of the book. It's a lot more quiet and pensive in the beginning, which ain't a bad thing. We also get a glimpse of what has happened in the outside world after all this time--and a plot to destroy the sphere forever. The greatest strength remains to be the complex character development, strongly evidenced in this volumes by Astrid, Dekka, Sam, and Brianna--with Quinn and Caine revealing new sides of themselves, as well. Astrid's was by far the most profound, as she had lost her faith and accepts her desire for Sam, rather than try to push it away. We see Dekka and Brianna be hopelessly vulnerable--and Orc, too, come to think of it.

The ending--which was quite cool and surprising--opens up the door for further interesting character conflict, as the world of FAYZ is now open for the adults to see--without the benefit of warm embraces and lengthy explanations. (And imagine the pressure of being seen while going about your business running a run-down world!) For that reason, and not the final demise of the gaiaphage, I am excited to see what happens in the final volume.

In spite of its enduring strengths, Fear had many weaknesses, mainly figuring around the mutant baby of Diana's that the gaiaphage possesses. It was one thing to have the "bad girl" endure a pregnancy, but once it accelerates and the baby is born, I couldn't help but giggle a little bit because it's so convenient that the gaiaphage can accelerate growth, I find the precocious monster baby trope a little silly (as well as precocious babies in general), and I am immature. Even with Penny's quick descent into madness and evil and Cigar's beady new eyes, I found the baby gaiaphage to be the silliest turn that the Gone series has taken thus far.

I found other aspects problematic, as well. While the depiction of violence and madness has usually been handled tactfully in the series, the introduction of Penny as a "pure evil" character as bad as Drake, and Cigar's descent into madness as a result of her own, paints a problematic picture of both. While in a world where survival is prime, the mad and the violent are most often shunned or condemned to death, a sad state of affairs, I still find it terrible that nobody has tried to help them. Mad people need help, not to be euthanized or brutally killed. Another small issue I had was the abrupt reveal of Edilio's relationship with Artful Roger. Though Sam calls him "gay," I doubt that Edilio should have accepted the label so blatantly. Didn't he have a little crush on Lana at first? I would say he's at least bisexual. He just happens to like this guy.

All told, however,  Fear remains a quality installment to the series, with a cliffhanging finish that leaves you beyond excited for the next volume. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

"Plague: A Gone Novel": the FAYZ continues

To call the Gone series a dystopia is a misnomer, at the very least. A dystpoian tale conjures up the likes of Brave New World and 1984: stories that take place in the future, predicting a forseeable technological and societal upheaval that bears the mask of a utopia, but is actually quite a terrible place, devoid of such Enlightenment values as freedom and reasonable debate. Yet this is what it is called on the dust jackets of the first edition, probably to capitalize on the dystopian trend at the time. And it does appear a utopia (from a kid's point of view) for a fleeting moment in the first book: no more adults. And...that's it. Plague, perhaps more so than the other volumes, shows that this series is not "dystopian," but a supernatural horror story, with some aliens thrown in for good measure.

These kids still look too good to be from the FAYZ

Among the growing atrocities in Plague, a parasite that eats kids from the inside out--and can transfer itself to another host via green goo--that eventually grow into six foot long mutant insects terrorize Perdido Beach; two individuals who cannot die and share the same body (Brittany and Drake from the previous book) are sliced into pieces and put themselves back together multiple times; and a freak flu strikes in which the infected can literally cough out their insides. If you thought the craziness of Lies was bad, things get much, much worse in this installment.

*mild spoilers may follow*

Even with all the shocking and stomach-churning events that transpire over the course of the novel, Grant remains true to the characters, who keep growing and changing throughout the novels. Astrid finds herself in a dark place, and commits the previously unthinkable, riddled with guilt afterwards. Sam, tired of being a leader, begins to regret his choice as things just keep getting worse. Edilio, now mayor of Perdido Beach, sees what made Sam shrink away from leadership and is in a bind with terrible choices to make. Lana opens up slowly to one of the kids from the island, Sanjit, and on the island, Diana works at keeping Caine with her, but when he returns to Perdido Beach at another chance for glory, she leaves him in the end. Each of the characters we follow in Gone's diverse cast is distinct and complex, continuing the trend of the previous books.

My main criticism? People seemed to get from place to place suspiciously quickly. While it's tough to keep track of the time frame when so many things are happening at once and the perspective changes every other time, the bulk of the story takes place over a mere three days. Would Drake have reached the bottom of the cave so quickly? Would Quinn really have reached the island and come back in time? Would Sam and his water posse have made it back so soon? It's hard to say.

As with the swiftly moving, action-packed plot, the interesting characters keep the reader engaged and leave you hungry for more. Oh, I am definitely seeing this series through 'til the end. 4 stars out of five.

Labor Day is Today

While I don't normally use my online platform(s) for political purposes--though I am pretty passionate about many politicized issues--this post is in honor of International Workers' Day, also known as Labor Day throughout the world. May Day bears a lot of significance for many movements--namely, the labor and anarchist movement, and I've come to view this day as the "true" Labor Day, not the September U.S. "Labor Day" that is a joke of a holiday. Do we ever discuss workers' rights that weekend? Anyway, now for a short post...

The labor movement has taken a lot of bad hits lately. Proposals to raise the minimum wage, as was recently in New York, are met with intense resistance, as are measures to require paid sick and maternity leave--both of which are claimed to hurt "small business." Attempts to unionize have been promptly quashed and strikes of teachers and service workers can often fizzle. (though the recent fast food strike holds promise) A more recent phenomenon has been the reduction of hours for retail and food service workers so that employers don't have to give them health insurance when the Affordable Care Act kicks in (among other reasons). These reasons alone justify organized labor, though there are plenty more.

Ironically, I found this on a .com

While there are many worthy criticisms of labor unions today, one has to keep in mind that all power needs to be kept in check. That is how the Founding Fathers structured the federal government, so that the three branches would check and balance each other's power to keep them in line (whether that holds true today is another story...). Government alone cannot be counted on to keep corporate power in check--besides all the lobbying and schmoozing, government is not sufficiently opposed to a corporation to be considered a proper check to its power, anyway. What does this leave us? Labor unions, and for the previous few decades, both the government and corporations have been attempting to chip away at the power of labor unions (see: Wal-Mart and Wisconsin) in order to assert their own.

Unions, perhaps, are not the most ideal solution in a world that is increasingly run on the work of service, freelance, and independent contract workers. The volatility of the economy and the increasing necessity to change jobs or even careers has created an environment hostile to the development of strong, stable unions. But the only significant power that unions can have is in numbers. The more people that join unions, the more powerful the unions can be. This is reflected in the history of the United States. "Divided we are weak; united we are strong" never rings so true as in the case of labor.

The dichotomy of "labor" and "management" may become antiquated as an increasing number of people choose to be their own boss (and employee, out of necessity), but there will always be people who have the money and control of production, and those who produce. And us producers always have to keep in mind that together, we can remind management who gets the real work done around here.