Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Review: Ruins by Dan Wells

Ruins

Author: Dan Wells
Release: March 11th 2014
Genre: Dystopia, Post-Apocalypse, Science Fiction, YA
#3 in the Partials Sequence
Series: Partials (#1), Fragments (#2)


Plot:

Kira, Samm, and Marcus fight to prevent a final war between Partials and humans in the gripping final installment in the Partials Sequence, a series that combines the thrilling action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Blade Runner and The Stand.

There is no avoiding it—the war to decide the fate of both humans and Partials is at hand. Both sides hold in their possession a weapon that could destroy the other, and Kira Walker has precious little time to prevent that from happening. She has one chance to save both species and the world with them, but it will only come at great personal cost.

Review:


Not a full review, just a few quick thoughts, no spoilers or anything.

In my opinion the weakest of the three, but still a satisfying, nice conclusion to a trilogy I've really come to enjoy over the days it took me to read, few as they were, though I guess that just shows how much I liked them. 

Ruins was a very frustrating read insofar that it follows even more POVs than Fragments, and none of them quite as interesting as they were in the second book. Some characters figured really important things out, but were unable to get that knowledge to the others who really needed to know in order to efficiently progress in their own respective storylines, and knowing what they should do because you knew was just really annoying, and it kind of made the book feel tedious after a while. I feel like a lot of the plot was unnecessary and could have been avoided altogether, and in turn, there was this huge sense of impatience I went through the novel with. I needed to know how it would all pan out so badly, and I wanted to know as quickly as possible, that I did not want to get caught up in unimportant descriptions of the scenery and so on. I guess that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since it kept me with a sense of urgency that also made me want to, nay, need to read on, but ... like I said, I was getting really frustrated by the end.

But yeah, like I said, I still vastly enjoyed the plot for the most part, I came around to liking all the characters, even Kira and especially Marcus, with whom I've had a few issues the last two books but whom I really grew to love in this one. And I want to remark, again, that I think the romance is handled so wonderfully in these books. The "love triangle," if you can even call it that, is probably the only one ever since Unearthly I came across that is handled extremely maturely and appropriately. This book made me happy, it made me angry, it shocked me, and I almost even cried at the end; the ending itself wasn't too happy so that it was unrealistic (like, ahem, The Forever Song was ...), but we finish off with some rough times ahead and catastrophes that they have to process and come to terms with, both physically as well as emotionally. I felt like it was a fitting ending for a novel of this genre, and it left me as a reader, who has invested precious time and effort into these characters and this story, completely satisfied.

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