Eleanor by Jason Gurley

From Goodreads.com

   1985. The death of Eleanor's twin sister tears her family apart. Her father blames her mother for the accident. When her mother looks at her, she sees only the daughter she lost. Their wounded family crumbles under the weight of their shared grief.

   1993. Eleanor is 14 years old when it happens for the first time... when she walks through an ordinary door at school and finds herself in another world. It happens again and again, but it's only a curiosity until the day at the cliffs. The day when Eleanor dives... and something rips her out of time itself.

And on the other side, someone is waiting for her.

   Eleanor begins with a woman (named Eleanor) sitting and watching the rain fall. She is married to a man named Hob and they have a daughter, Agnes. You can feel Eleanor's depression and Hob's adoration is obvious. The story jumps into the future to a set of twins, Esmeralda and Eleanor, and their mother, Agnes. The book reads like a family tale of depression and loss (which it is) but then we meet Mia and strange things start to happen to Eleanor. She finds herself in odd worlds that seem to have no connection to one another. She comes back to her world missing time, hours, even days, have passed.

   I'm not exactly sure how I discovered this book. I feel like a read a recommendation from Neil Gaiman for it, I don't remember where I saw it though. I'm not in the habit of reading a book simply because someone famous recommends it, but it's Neil Gaiman! I remember immediately looking for it at my local library to read the synopsis only to find that we hadn't yet received it.

   Eleanor is a book that will stick with me for a while. I already see myself picking it back up in a year or so just to experience it again. Science fiction is woven perfectly into contemporary fiction. I loved the balance. I like contemporary fiction but sometimes I get too frustrated with the story line. The fantasy aspect definitely kept my attention. Not to mention the writing itself. Gorgeous.

   I recommend this book if you're a fan of Neil Gaiman, it has a similar feel to it. You by no means have to like Neil Gaiman to enjoy this book though. If you normally stick to contemporary fiction, give this book a chance, the sci-fi element might throw you off, but you may just discover you like it. 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

From Goodreads.com:
   Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl.
   Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future.

   This cover art caught my eye a while ago, but the book just wasn't high on my list, until I was at work without my best friend to talk with. I was browsing my Overdrive app looking for audio books I could check out from the library and this is what I came across. I listened to this book in two days. I just didn't want to stop, every car ride became another chapter to hear.
   Cinder is a young adult book, and I think it's a relatively clean one. I've recently read some YA books that have some pretty questionable morals and language in them, this isn't one of them. Other than mild language I think this one was good for the younger YA audience. I did get slightly annoyed with some of the younger dramatics, but I'm sure if I were a teen this would just be perfect.
   I've also listened to book two, Scarlet and it's just as good, but there's more violence. I haven't read/listened to book three yet but The Lunar Chronicles seems to be a very promising series. If you're a fan of the retelling of fairy tales you should like this book. If you like Gregory Maguire or Once Upon a Time these are the next books you should check out.

Sand Omnibus by Hugh Howey

From Goodreads.com:

   The old world is buried. A new one has been forged atop the shifting dunes. Here in this land of howling wind and infernal sand, four siblings find themselves scattered and lost. 

   Palmer has never been the same since his father walked out twelve years ago. His elder sister, Vic, is trying to run away from the past; his younger brothers, Connor and Rob, are risking their lives to embrace it. His mother, left with nothing but anger, is just trying to forget.

   Palmer wants to prove his worth, not only to his family, but to himself. And in the barren, dune-covered landscape of his home, there is only one way to earn respect: sand-diving. Plunging deep below the desert floor in search of relics and scraps of the old world. He is about to embark on the most dangerous dive of his young life, aiming to become the first to discover the rumored city below.

   Deep within the sand lies the key to bringing his family together - and tearing their world apart.

   This is a surprising read. I found it through one of the many sites that send me daily emails of free or bargain Kindle books, because you can never have too many books. I admit I was first intrigued by the cover (shame on me,) it's beautiful and the words, "No one will come for us. No one will save us. This is our life." How could I not be interested? I read Sand. almost immediately.
   Sand. takes place in a barely recognizable world. Pieces of the old world, of our world, are salvaged from beneath the ever shifting sand, they are the keys to survival in this new landscape. I continually wondered what happened to make such a sandy wasteland of our world. I was intrigued by sand diving. Scuba diving is the only thing I could compare it to, but (and having never been diving I can't say for sure) I think it's a poor comparison. The diver has to control the flow of the sand around them which allows their movement and also relieves the pressure from tons of sand.
   I wouldn't put this up there with the best books I've read. However, once I started I did not want to put this down. I became attached to every member of Palmer's family. As with most books, the need to know what happens kept me going at a fast pace. I was even surprised a couple times.
   If you're a fan of science fiction this book is for you. If you like some dystopian, maybe give this a try. It is not dystopian but it has a post-apocalyptic feel to it. I know I will be reading more of Hugh Howey's work. 

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

From the Paperback:
After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X-a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization-has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.
   John Rodriguez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.
   In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered... but the answers are far from reassuring.

"His first full day was only four hours old and he already felt contaminated by the dingy, bizarre building with its worn green carpet and the antiquated opinions of the other personnel he had met. A sense of diminishment suffused everything..."

This second book was a little tougher to get into than the first, I enjoyed it as much as the first though. Authority had a different feel to it than Annihilation. This book felt like a spy book: paranoia, mind control, and politics. It was just as unsettling as book one, but in a completely different way. The synopsis says "questions are answered," and they are somewhat. I ended up with just as many questions given the new insights at the end. I highly anticipate the final book Acceptance coming out in September 2014. I can't wait to see what form the final volume in this trilogy will take, hopefully a fun mix of the first two.