Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for The Silver Sickle by Ellie Ann! A book for fans of steampunk, cyberpunk, Veronica Roth, Scott Westerfield, and Ally Condie.
Genre:
Young Adult Science Fiction Romance
Publish Date:
July 16, 2013
Publisher:
Stonehouse Ink
Synopsis:
The end of humanity will come through the Silver Sickle...
Farissa lives every moment with reckless abandon, for it may be her last. Any day now, the alien goddesses will harvest her and take her to the mysterious Silver Sickle, never to return. She's accepted that. What she can't accept is this new idea of freedom Zel has planted in her head. She'd give almost anything to be with Zel, but how can she run from her destiny if it means putting the whole kingdom in danger?
Everyone in the desert kingdom believes the goddesses are immortal, but Zel has invented a way to kill them. Now all he has to do is convince Farissa to run away with him and plant a seed of hope in her heart that she's not destined to die. Little does he know that one seed of hope could change the course of the future.
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**About the Author**
Ellie Ann is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of science fiction, comics, and thrillers.
I was born in the jungles of Thailand, was raised in a small farming village in Iowa, lived in the middle of a Texan desert, and now abide in the Ozarks. I like writing fairy tales, tall tales, thrillers, science fiction, and am seriously interested in transmedia storytelling.
I'm a creative editor of Stonehouse Ink. I'm a producer of interactive books at Noble Beast.
Come say hi! I don't bite. Unless I've been turned into a zombie.
Stay connected with Ellie Ann
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*My Thoughts*
Note: This review contains no spoilers
Being a fan of science fiction, I am always looking for a fresh new take on the "possibilities" of extraterrestrial life coming to Earth and the threat of human extinction. Ellie Ann created such a story in The Silver Sickle. This is the one of very few books that I have read under a genre called steampunk, which basically is a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that features technology based on steam power of the Victorian era and/or 19th century. It was fascinating to read a mosh of aliens, humans and machines.
In a world where people worship aliens as gods and royalty, the people live under fear and loyalty...fear of what they do not know of these Amars and loyalty to their king and the gods they worship. Focusing on the points of views of Farissa, Zel, and Gira, I got three distinct views on how they see their world. In a world filled with mysticism and awe of the Amars, the logic and facts of the cogsmen, and the undeniable faith and doubts of the people, it was interesting that there was a balance in this city of Dyn which the King maintained. However, there was also the feeling of mystery and dread with regards to the Amars, these aliens that came that are regarded as gods. When Farissa and Zel's lives are put in a dangerous situation, they not only fear and fight for their lives, they are also put precariously in a position that can help save all the people as well.
Ellie Ann constructed this world and characters with such detail that I could picture it as if watching it on the movie screen. Her detailed descriptions of the aliens even made my skin crawl, but yet, I was also in awe of such majestic creatures. Although these creatures are so massive, they are not totally impassive. Just like humans, they also have their emotions. Now, it was very interesting that the cogsmen, though machines, still had a sense of self awareness...an artificial intelligence that follow orders, but yet, had a sense of understanding of right and wrong...and the many shades of gray in between as well.
The actions of these characters are also not as black and white as one would like to believe. Just like humans, these Amars and cogsmen has a motivation and a story/perspective behind the actions they take. I, in turn, ended up having some compassion for these aliens. With each turn of the page, I got deeper and deeper into the "heart" of their driving determination for their actions. Fascinating! As for Farissa and Zel's romance, this wasn't the focus of the story, but I enjoyed how this budding romance unraveled itself throughout the story.
The thing I disliked is that there was a lot of repetitive descriptions that were unnecessary. It seemed to make the story drag from chapter to chapter.
Other that, The Silver Sickle was an enjoyable read filled with action, mystery, suspense, and romance. At the end, it seems that Farissa and Zel's adventures are only just beginning....
My rating:
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***The Giveaway***
Blog Tour Organized by
Thank you so much for the review. I love reading your thoughts on it. You have a great writing style!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day. :)
Welcome! It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to read and to review your book! It was a pleasure to share and to support awesome books by awesome authors!
DeleteThank you for your kind words.
This book sounds so fascinating. I love alien books and this one with the robots sounds really unique and exciting. I also like how they're treated as gods which is not especially implausible either (if aliens DID come and acted all superior what else would we do? lol) It also sounds very well written especially the world building which is the most important for me in this genre! Great review, Jasmine! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Giselle! It was definitely a fascinating read.
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