It's here, it's here! We can FINALLY talk about Beth Revis' ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. Okay, now where do we begin? Let's start with the first chapter. It is, hands down, the best first chapter we have ever read. We loved it so much we read it aloud during our YA book club and the girls were practically drooling, we ask about it every time we go into a bookstore and we had the librarian from our event the other night write down the title so she could use it for the book selection next month! We're stalker-level-obsessed supportive! I guess what we're trying to say is the first chapter blew our mind.
Here's what the back cover has to say:
A Story of Love, Murder, and Madness Aboard an Enormous Spaceship Bound for the Future
Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed. She expects to wake up on a new planet, 300 years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, Amy's cryo chamber is unplugged, and she is nearly killed.
Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.
Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
Across the Universe is Titanic meets Brave New World.
LiLa's Take:
If the first chapter blew our mind, the entire book rocked our world. Yowsers--that's not meant to sound dirty. Moving on. So, Amy makes the decision to stick with her parents and be put to sleep for 300 years (and learns that while her body is frozen, her mind is not. CAN YOU IMAGINE? 300 years of THINKING?), giving the spaceship enough time to make to Centauri Earth, where the selected team of individuals plus the current generation of Godspeed can establish a new life. BUT there's a crimp in the plan when Amy gets woken up 50 years early. 50 years people! And not only that, but she wasn't supposed to survive the thaw--she was the victim of an attempted murder! Thus she is launched into an interplanetary murder mystery all the while trying to navigate the culture of Godspeed, which is very different than the one she left behind. The differences are FASCINATING, you guys. This is the kind of book you devour in a night, feeling all hungover when you realize you have to wait for the next installment. It's a delicious blend of sci-fi (few and far between in YA), mystery and love.
In honor of the AtU release, one lucky commenter will win a brand-spanking new copy fresh from the bookstore. Just leave a comment about what YOU would think about for 300 years.
Check out what the other Bookinistas are up to this week:
41 comments:
I got this today and am eager to get around to it. It sounds great.
What would I think about for 300 years? Probably think about not thinking... anything to force myself to stop.
I've been dying to read this book and from what you say, I guess it will be well worth the wait.
DreamyCowgirl @ hotmail.com
I think I would absolutely freak OUT! 300 years of thinking? Though I'd probably be an amazing philosopher and know all the answers to life, solved the mind-body problem and had at least 3 rocking plots, ready to go! Thanks for the contest!
Yep, the first chapter certainly is amazing! Can't wait to read it!
300 years of thinking would be horrid.
I'm on page 160 or so now, and it's living up to the hype so far. I'm glad we had a snowstorm yesterday so I could devote more time to reading it. And it will be a 3-day weekend. YaY!
I loved the first chapter too! Can't wait to read the rest! :)
For 300 years I'd probably think a LOT about my family - and probably make up a few stories and songs too! :)
Okay, so first of all this is the main reason I'm so furious about the snowstorm down here. My B&N has been closed all week and I was planning to pick this up on Tuesday. Luckily, they had a huge part of it available online, so I'm a good way into it and everything you've said is true.
I don't know Beth as well as I know you guys, but every freaking time I email her to ask her to lend a hand with a query crit or whatever, she makes time to stop by. She literally is nicer than a care bear.
If I was in cryo-stasis for 300 years I would probably think about sex a lot. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Just finished this last night. It took me about six hours, which is probably the fastest I've read a book since the "Hitchhiker's Guide" books. Which is a compliment unto itself. I really loved the ship, such an original concept. And you don't see too many of those anymore.
300 years of thinking would be torture. You'd lose touch with reality pretty quick, because it's a total sensory deprivation experience.
Without outside stimulation, your mind would turn in on itself and replay everything that it could find tucked away in your brain. For a long stretch of time, until you learned to control it, that would include the worst parts, like fears and old nightmares.
When you woke, you'd be totally disoriented to have the other senses back and, most likely, you'd end up a locking down because of sensory overload.
The reality you were used to, which was that of your mind, wouldn't apply to the real world. You wouldn't have the sort of total control in the physical you did in your mind.
Then there's the issue of time.
For 300 years, you'd be in a changeless state only to wake into one where change would seem to come a lightning pace by comparison. Your natural life would race by in a fraction of your frozen one.
For 300 years I guess I'd be making up stories in my head. Hooray for Beth. I'm looking forward to reading this.
I've been dying to read this since I saw that first chapter online. I'm with you: It was one of the best first chapters I've read.
If I were frozen for 300 years I think I'd go insane. I spend enough time rehashing things I said and wondering if I made a fool of myself. I can't imagine having 300 years to really dig in and decide I should have done some things differently while I wasn't a block of ice.
Actually already got my copy, so don't bother entering me. I want to say I'd think about my hubby for 300 years, but knowing me, I'd listen to some annoying Wiggles song right before being frozen and have that stuck in my head for 3 centuries.
With my luck I would probably end up having Katy Perry stuck in my head for the entire 300 years. When it was over I would probably end up killing anyone with brown hair an cleavage in an attempt to MAKE. IT. STOP.
(I may or may not have Teenage Dream stuck in my head and it's not even the Glee version)
300 years...that is a long damn time.
Even if you could "write" in your head, you'd have to repeat it over and over again just to retain it over that span, so I'd probably concentrate on chocolate.
Let's see, what would I think about for 300 years...I know! Twizzlers, LOL!
Or maybe I'd think about how to make all my story ideas develop into full-fledged novel length plots...still working on that one. I've got 2 years down, only 298 left to go. Ha!!!
I think I would either go crazy or start counting sheep and see how far I can get in 300 years' time. LOL.
So darn happy for Beth - this book ROCKS!
I am so excited for this book! I would plot out all of my stories so when I thawed I could write, write, write.
I read the first 111 pages online and now, I'm stuck waiting for a copy.
300 years. Hmmmm. I'd probably think about the stuff I was missing first, until it drove me insane that I couldn't be eating chocolate and ice cream or spending time with my family. I would probably write a 100 different stories in my head just to pass the time.
I wonder if the time would seem to go fast or slow without time cues. It could be that it's like dreaming where a million things can happen and no time at all has passed when you wake up. Or it could be that so much time goes by that everything is spaced out by the consciousness, periods of awareness and not awareness.
I LOVED this book!!! In fact, I posted on twitter that AtU "rocked my literary world." So we're on the same page girlies. ;)
I think I'd completely bat-crazy if I was alone with my thoughts for 300 years. I can barely keep myself sane with all of the thoughts I have NOW. Yikes.
Haven't finished yet, but I am in love with this book so far. It makes me hopeful for the future of YA sci-fi!
Great review, ladies!
I really don't know what i would think about for three hundred years... maybet he meaning of life?
strandedhero(at)gmail(dot)com
I can not WAIT to read this book! But I think I might get it on audio because the voice is so cool.
This book sounds so good!!!!
What would I think about for 300 hundred years? Hmm... I would probably obsess over everything that happened in my life and then about what was going on without me, haha!
danceislove27@gmail.com
Hmmm, in 300 years I could think of millions of story ideas and craft them into beautiful, plot-hole-less masterpieces. Yes, yes, it would be lovely. :)
Count me in!
I'm reading this one now! SO AWESOME.
What would I think about for 300 years? Well, I can't go that long without talking (heck I can't go five minutes without talking), so I'd create imaginary friends to talk to and keep me company in my head. Since it's 300 YEARS I'm sure I'd probably start thinking they were real and would be really confused when they weren't there after I thawed out :)
ditto - this book rocks!
I loved ATU! LOVED it!! And count me in as a member of the stalker-level-obsessed fan club. :-)
I can not wait to read this one. I'm going to go get it tonight ;o) Great review!!
I'd be thinking how to get my hands on some chocolate!!!!! I can hardly go a week without it, let alone 300 years!!!
And yeah Beth!!!!
I already bought it and read it, so don't count my comment for the contest. But, let me say this: the part that freaked me out the most...the thought of having to go in and out of consciousness like that for 300 freaking years. I seriously do not think I would survive. Ooooh, just the thought of it still makes me shiver.
Great read.
what I would think about for 300 years ?
I would think, I'm safe and Alive :) And not too Insane to think about it . lol
This book review absolutely made me interested...good job, ladies! I ordered a copy on Amazon right away.
If I had to think about something for 300 years, I'm sure I'd start saying words in my head over and over until they sounded funny. You know, like repeating the word "spoon" over and over until it sounds like the most ridiculous word ever. Of course, this would only come after I'd exhausted making up stories and replaying fond memories of my family:)
I'm so excited about reading this one!
I have no idea what I'd be thinking about for 300 years but I'd probably end up talking to myself (which I already do sometimes to remember things better) and go insane.
For 300 years?
Sam Worthington. Maybe throw in a little Kellan Lutz for variety.
I was blown away by this book, too. I couldn't put it down, even as sick as I've been. It was this incredible mix of genres--that seemed to even transcend the genres. Loved it! You guys wrote up a great review, too. Can't wait to read the next one!
Everyone is LOVING this book!
And though I haven't gotten it (yet), it debuted on my 40th birthday, so we're already quite connected, the book and me.
300 years of thinking? I'd spend it on the how/why of change.
I would try to do my math homework... seriously this stupid homework could pretty much take 300 years to figure out!!
I am ready to read this right now...I bought a copy today and the cover is so cool! There is even a map of the ship on the flip side!!
I have the attention span of a gnat. My stream of consciousness would look something like this:
I feel like I left the stove on- I wonder if the house burned down- Did it cause damage to the neighbour's? - The boy next door was kind of cute - But his girlfriend was so weird and she used to do that funny smirk- And who even owns a purse-dog in the suburbs?- Who thought of purse dogs? Why would you want a dog in a purse?...
It would be an interesting 300 years.
Hmm...think about what I would be thinking about is tough. I'd probably be thinking about why the hell is it taking so long and about what "Sol-Earth" is now like and so on...I've already read the book and its fantastic! Seriously one of the best books ever! And the cover is just gorg!
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