ARC Review + Giveaway: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on December 30, 2013 | 15 Comments


ARC Review + Giveaway: Avalon by Mindee ArnettAvalon by Mindee Arnett
Series: Avalon #1
Published by Balzer + Bray (1.21.2014)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: eARC, 432 pages
Source: Edelweiss, From Publisher
Buy on Amazon


4 Stars

Of the various star systems that make up the Confederation, most lie thousands of light-years from First Earth-and out here, no one is free. The agencies that govern the Confederation are as corrupt as the crime bosses who patrol it, and power is held by anyone with enough greed and ruthlessness to claim it. That power is derived from one thing: metatech, the devices that allow people to travel great distances faster than the speed of light.

Jeth Seagrave and his crew of teenage mercenaries have survived in this world by stealing unsecured metatech, and they're damn good at it. Jeth doesn't care about the politics or the law; all he cares about is earning enough money to buy back his parents' ship, Avalon, from his crime-boss employer and getting himself and his sister, Lizzie, the heck out of Dodge. But when Jeth finds himself in possession of information that both the crime bosses and the government are willing to kill for, he is going to have to ask himself how far he'll go to get the freedom he's wanted for so long.

My thoughts

The fact that this novel takes place in space was enough to make me like it. Space stories are so few and far between! There’s a certain magic to the idea of being in space (Treasure Planet!) and this one really captured that magic. The first line was ‘Stealing a spaceship shouldn’t be this easy.’ Talk about getting your attention! It was also very unique. The idea of metatech and metaspace was very intriguing, as were the Pyreans and Empyria!

Jeth was a likable lead, but he didn’t wow me. He was strong and defiant, though, and I love that in a MC. I guess it’s just hard for me to connect with male leads. It is, however, refreshing to be a male lead in the first place! There’s SO many female protags.

Hammer was a great villain. He came off as benign at times, which was actually just a facade for his cruel disposition. He had no problem getting his hands dirty, but there were times when he was hard to read, which made him a pretty scary dude!

Belgrave, aka The Devil’s Boneyard, was creepy! The happenings were chilling, particularly the gruesome deaths on the Donerail. That was probably my favorite part! It had a Ghost Ship meets Treasure Planet thing going on. Heck yeah!

There were a couple mentions of First-Earth, but it didn’t really go into detail. I would have loved to hear more about the past and how they came to be where they were!

I do have to say that Avalon was very predictable. I saw the twists coming a mile away (I guessed Cora’s relation as soon as she was introduced), and figured things out long before the characters did. Bad things happened, yet I still knew it would turn out happy in the end. The situation should have felt desperate, but I didn’t really take it seriously because I knew relief and rescue would come soon. It was still a fun journey, though! The predictability didn’t ruin the story thankfully.

Avalon was a very interesting and unique read, and I definitely recommend for sci-fi fans!

quotes

“What’re you all smiling about?”
“Heard you had an encounter with a vicious man-eating kitten out in the hallway.”

“The Donerail’s last known position was alpha-two-six-one, also known as the Specter Sea.”
“Of course it is,” said Flynn, his voice higher-pitched than usual. “Because that’s exactly what you want to name a place everybody is afraid of. I mean, why couldn’t they have called it the Sea of Puppies or maybe the Sea of Fluffy Kittens?”

Overall Assessment

Plot: 3.5/5 
Premise: 5/5 
Writing style: 4/5 
Originality: 5/5 
Characters: 4/5 
World-building: 4/5 
Pace: 4/5 
Feels: 2.5/5 
Cover: 5/5 
Overall rating: 4/5

giveaway

1. As this is out of my own pocket, you must be following this blog via Bloglovin’ or email to enter. (Twitter does NOT count)
2. Contest open to US participants only.
3. Please read the Rafflecopter directions carefully. Faked entries will be deleted.
4. After the giveaway is over, I will notify the winner by email and they will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Book Reviews, Giveaways | Tags: , , , , ,

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15 responses to “ARC Review + Giveaway: Avalon by Mindee Arnett

  1. I’ve been hearing quite some chatter about this book and it’s made me curious to say at least! You are definitely spot on with there being something magical about space stories. I just read These Broken Stars and boy did I love it! Stories set in space are either great or they blow… judging from your review it was the first, which really makes me want to read it! :)
    Great Review!

  2. Oooh, this one sounds really cool. I am a big fan of books that take place in space, although the last one I read was a bit of a flop for me (black sheep right here). I’d definitely love to try this one!

  3. I totally agree about the predictability of the plot! It kind of ruined some of the fun for me of trying to guess what particularly was going on at the moment, but I’m glad that for you it didn’t really ruin your reading experience overall. Jeth being a male protagonist immediately is interesting too because like you said there are soo many female protagonists out there now and it’s nice to get to see that variety :)

    Fantastic review, Jessi! <33

  4. I like how both of those quotes involve the word kitten! Haha. I’ve been seeing this everywhere, but it’s the first time I actually read the summary and a review of it.
    As for its predictability… I’ve been feeling like everything I read is predictable lately. So that won’t bother me too much. The sci-fi aspect is really what draws me to this book. There really aren’t too many books that take place in space. It’s personally a genre I love writing about, although I feel my world building is weak at times… This doesn’t sound like it has that problem, although I wonder about First Earth.
    And there really are a lot of female protagonists. I could use a change in perspective, haha.

  5. I also would have loved to know more about First-Earth. I was super curious about that! But I agree — it was still a cool book! :)

    Fab review!

  6. I’m really curious about this one! I have heard such mixed reviews about it, but I’m still intrigued because like you said there aren’t many YA novels set in space these days! Overrall, loved the review! Thanks for your input!!! :)

  7. Tammy

    I like the amount of SciFi books that are now available in the YA genre. I’m adding this to my to-read list.

  8. Oh it seems I liked it more than you did. You are right space stories are rare and the cover is too beautiful to pass it up and Belgrave kinda reminded me of the bermuda triangle….

    great review and do check mine from the link mentioned

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