Achilles

~Full review here on The Bent Bookworm!~2.5 stars...GoodReads, half stars would be great at ANY time!I wanted to love this book. It sounded so cool, and like a break from the ton of fantasy/fairy tale type books I've been reading. Achilles was a book that, try as hard as I might, I just could not really get into. However, if you're big on science fiction you might love it! It did remind me of the first season of LOST...which, I, ahem, also discontinued a couple of episodes into Season 2 because I simply couldn't stand all the craziness and constantly losing people.Me, pretty much the entire book. Characters:I'm very character oriented when I read books. Characters are more important to me than world-building or excitement factor. In Achilles, the characters feel very flat and many of them feel the same. I got so confused because I could NOT keep many of the supporting cast separate. Not helped by the fact that many of them weren't even given names (referred to as “the hacker,” etc.) until several chapters after they appeared. Jonah, our MC, I thought was going to be likable but he turns out to have a bad case of navel-gazing and I just...cannot. I feel bad for him but I spent most of my time being annoyed at the way he was written. Also, he's supposed to be this hard-ass kid that's suffered abuse and came out still standing, yet his reactions to a lot of the things that happen are not how abuse victims and soldiers (he's been in a military training facility for some time by the time the book starts) react. It makes the whole thing kind of unbelievable – really jolted me out of my suspension of disbelief, which is necessary for any kind of fantastical fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, fill-in-the-blank). I really didn't feel anything for the rest of the characters either, and I was a little – ok, a lot – put off by how some of them did unexplained 180-degree flips without any real reason. Very suspicious and never explained, so the conclusion I am left with is that the author just...didn't notice? Ugh.Oh, also – CAN WE PLEASE HAVE MALE AND FEMALE INTERACTIONS WHERE THE MALE IS NOT SUDDENLY OVERCOME WITH AN UNAVOIDABLE HARD-ON?? I swear, so many times, when a book is written from the male perspective, he's so distracted by female characters physicality that he turns into an idiot and it gets really old. I refuse to believe that the male population of the world is run solely by hormones.World-building:I think this is where the author spent most of his time! The world of the moon Achilles is harsh and brutal and I actually felt grossed out by some of the descriptions of the creatures inhabiting it (hard to do...I'm an EMT and few things turn my stomach anymore). It seemed like something new was introduced in every chapter. Sometimes it was hard to keep up but it was definitely intriguing.Feels:I usually put this section first, but this time I am putting it last because...er. I really didn't have any. This book failed at making me feel anything but relief it was over. I am not interested in finding out what happens next. It didn't really end on a cliffhanger, though there are lots of things about Earth's colonization of Thetis that are not explained and have very dark implications – the main points of the story were wrapped up and that's all I cared about.Thank you very much to Diversion Books for sending me the ARC (this in no way influenced my review)! I was delighted to read and review even if it turned out to not be my cup of tea. Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

The year is 2221, and humans have colonized a planet called Thetis in the Silver Foot Galaxy. After a tragic accident kills dozens of teenage colonists, Thetis's leaders are desperate to repopulate. So Earth sends the Mayflower 2―a state-of-the-art spaceship―across the universe to bring 177 new homesteaders to the colony. For Jonah Lincoln, an orphaned teen who has bounced between foster homes and spent time on the streets of Cleveland, the move to Thetis is a chance to reinvent himself, to be strong and independent and brave, the way he could never be on Earth. But his dreams go up in smoke when their ship crash-lands, killing half the passengers and leaving the rest stranded―not on Thetis, but on its cruel and unpopulated moon, Achilles. Between its bloodthirsty alien life forms and its distance from their intended location, Achilles is a harrowing landing place. When all of the adult survivors suddenly disappear, leaving the teenage passengers to fend for themselves, Jonah doubts they'll survive at all, much less reach Thetis―especially when it appears Achilles isn't as uninhabited as they were led to believe.

The story revolves around young teenager named Jonah who we first meet aboard the Mayflower 2 journeying towards a new Earth like planet. The story quickly dissolves into chaos when the ship experiences some sort of failure and crashes on Achilles, a moon of Thetis. Half of those aboard the ship are killed on the initial crash and the survivors try to deal with the crippling loss. Very soon though it's revealed that the crash was not as accidental as it appears and the group begins to struggle with trust. When people start mysteriously turning up brutally murdered sides are chosen. As one group splits up and decides to journey across the moon, it becomes apparent that something is not quite right about the moon or the planet Thetis. As more and more starts to go wrong a plot unravels that pushes all the teenagers to the very brink of their humanity.

This book was basically The Maze Runner meets Lord of the Flies meets The 100. It's such a well written tale that really took me through some strong emotional turns. There were some people, sad to say that I'm glad didn't make it. There were others who I felt deserved to survive and grew quite attached too. The loose sense of law and order was my favorite part of the story because it didn't feel forced or out of place given the situation. The best part I would say is that Jonah was a very well rounded character who I feel had a part that everyone could connect to.

If you are a fan of dystopian novels or enjoy the idea of a bunch of kids lost together trying to just survive then pick this book up. I really struggled with putting this book down once I started it. I feel like many would have the same issue.

This book can be picked up from the Amazon link above. There is a link to the author's bio at the top of the page. I humbly thank NetGalley and the publisherDiversion Publishing for this ARC copy of the book to review prior to release. I wish the author the best of luck with his future writing endeavors.

I rated this book a 4/5. I'm eagerly waiting for the next book to be released whenever that happens. I'm sure we ca expect great things from this author.