quippe | Entries tagged with michael grant

The Blurb On The Back:

Could women fight?

Stupid question. Women don’t stop being women, and men don’t stop being men. We become an entirely new creature: the combat soldier. And we are none of us, men or women, the people we started out as.

War is hell.

1944. It feels like the war will never end. Rio, Frangie and Rainy have all received accolades, been “heroes”, earned promotion. They’ve all done “enough” to allow them to leave this nightmare and go home. But the war hasn’t finished with them yet …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The conclusion to Michael Grant’s AU World War II YA historical trilogy is an action-packed thrill ride that honours the sacrifice of those who fought while making interesting observations about women in combat, highlighting the prejudice experienced by African Americans and providing a moving postscript that made me emotional, but the final quarter is too rushed and I wanted to know more about some of the characters’ post war choices.

The Blurb On The Back:

I hear civilians saying we’re all heroes.

Here’s one of the nasty little twists that come in war: if you don’t manage to get wounded or dead, they’ll promote you. Right when you start to get good at following, they want you to lead.

If everyone is a hero, then no one is.

No longer raw recruits, Rio, Frangie and Rainy have all faced combat and know that it has changed them. They may have fought on the front lines, but the personal battles rage on …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second in Michael’s Grant’s BATTLE LINES SERIES is a thoughtful, action-packed YA read set in an alternate universe where women were conscripted to fight in World War II and although I’m still not wholly convinced that he needs that premise to explore all of the issues that he’s interested in, the book does challenge gender assumptions and is thought provoking on racism and violence.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Am I a coward?

Her face is wet but her mouth is dry. Her heart is beating heavy and slow. Her breaths are shallow. Soon no. Soon they will be there, wherever there is. It is a mission, it is a commando raid. It will almost certainly be combat.

It all leads to this.

Rio Richlin and her friends are going to war. But will they be strong enough to prove themselves on the front lines?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Michael Grant’s YA alternate history of World War II pitches women into the front line, integrating real battles (notably Kasserine Pass) with fictional events in a standard war tale that follows the characters from basic training to first campaign with the usual trauma and development inbetween. Grant’s great at incorporating research (there’s a good bibliography at the back) while keeping the action moving and he’s created four interesting characters, each with their own fascinating backstory (my favourite being Frangie who joins the army for pragmatic reasons but who has dreams of having the army fund a college education and her desire to be a doctor). However, while I enjoyed this book I don’t currently see what the AU premise adds to the period other than to point out the sexism and racism (which could equally be brought across in a straightforward period story). I also found the unknown narrator device to be a little too reminiscent of CODE NAME VERITY (which Grant name checks as an influence). That said there’s enough here to keep me reading on and I look forward to the next in this series.

BATTLE LINES will be released in the United Kingdom on 28th January 2016. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

If the call came – would you answer?

Twelve-year-old Mack MacAvoy is not cut out to be a hero. But one day a three-thousand-year-old man named Grimluk appears and tells Mack he is one of the Magnificent Twelve – an elite team who must save the world from the greatest evil it has ever faced. Mack must travel the globe and track down the other eleven kids who will fight the coming terror.

But it all sounds a bit dangerous and Mack never planned to be a hero ... Will he answer the call?

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The first in a new Middle Grade fantasy series treads the familiar old ground of a chosen one having to battle evil. Although the author tries to put a modern spin on it, for me the glib tone and too mature references stopped me from empathising with the main character and his journey. There are some genuine laughs, courtesy of a golem replacement struggling to understand how the world works, but it wasn’t enough to raise this above a so-so read.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the free copy of this book.