Mila: Origins: The Fire and Mila 2.0
by Debra Driza
*I DO NOT RECAP THE BOOKS IN MY REVIEWS, THAT IS WHAT THE BOOK DESCRIPTION IS FOR. NOR DO I HAVE SPOILERS*
Overall Rating
I just finished the first 2 books that are out in the series, The Origins and Mila 2.0. I flew through the first book which was more of a novella and immediately jumped into Mila 2.0. I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this series because I absolutely adore YA and genres such as supernatural, fantasy, and science fiction. This series is a fantastic example of science fiction and beautifully woven with a YA element. With true form for a successful series, I felt that the books got better with each one. Origins gives you a beautifully suspenseful opening and trust me when I say that you will want to read on to the next one so you better have both books ready! I very much enjoyed the books and if you like YA and science fiction, this series will be a hit for you too.
Originality/Creativity:
Obviously the idea of a part robot, part human book or movie has been done before several times. So the trick for any author that approaches this idea is to make it their own. Have their story stand out. I felt that the author did that. The story is unique and there are a couple of twists and turns in it that keep you guessing as to what will happen next. It was interesting to have the main character be simply a 16 year old “normal” girl and then to take the story and dramatically change it into non stop action and complexity. I give the author several points, or should I say PAWS for that.
Complexity of Characters/Storyline:
The most complex character is of course, the main character Mila. That girl is a whole bunch of WTF rolled into a teenage ball of mechanical wonder. You definitely have a huge evolution of who you think she is in the first book, to having your mind blown away in the second book. You see her mentality go from being a slightly ditsy teenager to becoming more of an adult with hints of teenage tendancies in the second book. The next most complex character is her “mom” which I won’t go into much because that would be spoiling it, and I don’t do spoilers! Just trust me when I say that her mom is all sorts of wacky.
Quality of writing:
The writing in this book is very well done. When you read science fiction novels, sometimes the authors get so complex in their descriptions that you start to wonder if it is a book you are reading or a how-to-guide on building futuristic space rockets. The author did a great job of keeping it fun, easy to understand, while still having science fiction elements. The story was easy to follow and flowed nicely. I had no problems picturing each scene in my mind which to me is the most important thing a good book should do.
Action/Suspense:
I am an action junkie so the best way to keep me extremely happy is to have non-stop action. This series does exactly that. The first novella gets you pumped up because it jumps right into a tragic event. It makes you want to run full speed into the second book. And the second book starts out not really slow, but takes just a few minutes to get into the action. Once it does, it is literally non-stop throughout the whole book. I absolutely loved and appreciated that. I read both books in one day so that should say a lot as to how much interest it generated for me.
Would I recommend the series? Oh hell yes! It is a great read! If you enjoy YA and science fiction, this is a good fit for you. It isn’t science fiction overload though so I think that will help generate interest to a wider audience. There is not much of a romance element to it, but you do see that there is potential to that in the next books to come in the series. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Mila and I am sure that you will feel the same way once you read the books.
No comments:
Post a Comment