Starters by Lissa Price

* * * *

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.


He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .(Taken from GoodReads)


Starters is an unbelievably fast-paced Sci-Fi/Dystopian adventure. The story takes place in a world in our not too distant future. A future where movies have developed into holos but cars are still cars that are just faster and sleeker. It’s a future that is believable which makes the story that much more disturbing. If the reader can believe what this future looks like, then they can also believe that what the Antagonist, the company Prime Destinations, is doing is possible. And that is what makes for a truly disturbing and excellent read.

A vaccine to protect people from the Spore Wars was only provided to the old and the young. Now with the middle-aged working population mostly obliterated by the Spore Wars, the country is being run by Enders, the elderly population. Thanks to modern technology and medicine, Enders can now live upwards of 200 years old. They have taken over the workforce by default. The Starters are all those kids under 20 that have survived the Spore Wars and are now parent-less. Almost all Starters are parent-less, the exception being those that are lucky enough to be claimed by an Ender relative. If not claimed, Starters have two options. Be a squatter that is constantly on the run from the police or live in one of numerous Institutions designed to house unclaimed Starters and force them into work.

Callie and her brother are unclaimed Starters. And they are squatters that are constantly on the run. Callie has heard about Prime Destinations and the price they will offer if she would be willing to rent out her body to an ender - a price that would pay for a home and food for her and her brother. She decides to take the risk only to find that Prime Destinations plans for the Starters bodies they rent out is more nefarious than she imagined.

This story really makes you think. What price would you pay? How far would you be willing to go to recapture your youth? As much as I joke about recapturing my teen years, I realize that I truly am just joking. When faced with the question as to whether I would be willing to take over someone else’s body if it meant living a longer and fuller life, the answer is, without a doubt, NO! Who are we to take the precious privilege of living away from someone else? The idea is reprehensible.

This was a great story and I am very excited that we only have to wait until this fall for part two, Enders.



Nat

Tempest by Julie Cross

* * * 1/2

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.


When we received Tempest, I fully admit to trying to pawn it off on Shel and Bel.  The fact is time travel drives me batty.  The impossibilities and incomprehensible ramifications of it keeps me from fully enjoying and appreciating a time travel story.  I can't even watch Back to the Future without getting all worked up and starting an argument with The Executive Officer about how impossible time travel is.  So imagine my chagrin when I found out that Shel is not a big time travel either and Bel was already committed to a few other reads.  So I took one for the team and read the dreaded time travel story....

...and all I have to say is that Julie Cross is a genius.  Tempest manages to be the first time travel story that didn't make me want to pull my hair out.  The non-stop action never allowed me to overly dwell on the time travel issues that I have.  The book read like an action movie and consistently kept me on the edge of my seat so much that I couldn't wait to turn the page to see what happened next. 

I personally found the main character in this book pretty engaging.  Jackson starts out as a jackass commitment-phobe but grows considerably as he learns exactly what his abilities entail.  His friend Adam was the cliche genius that helps him find the answers to his abilites.  In the end though, he was a loveable character so I couldn't hold the cliche status against him. The most fascinating characters in this book were the more mysterious secondary chracters - Courtney, the little red head girl, Thomas and Jackson's father.  I look forward to learning more about these characters in the next two books.

The one thing that I didn't enjoy about this book was the romance.  Jackson and Holly's relationship lacked emotion and intensity.  Holly's character was nice enough not well developed which made the interest between the two of them seem rather one sided.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next two installments in the trilogy.

Nat