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Amy Norman (1048 KP) rated The Boy on the Bridge in Books

Jul 6, 2020  
The Boy on the Bridge
The Boy on the Bridge
M. R. Carey | 2017 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Before reading this I had watched 'The Girl with All the Gifts', so I had a good grasp of the 'world/universe' this was set in.

I would not recommend reading 'The Boy on the Bridge' without having first read, or watched 'The Girl with All the Gifts', as I felt this book relies on you having some knowledge of the current situation.
I believe watching 'The Girl with All the Gifts' gave an added depth, that helped me with visualising the surrounding world.

However, counterintuitively, I believe the author does like to drop his readers blind into completely new situations, where nothing can be assumed as normal, adding to twists/discoveries, and assumes you are intelligent enough to catch up.
This book is also a prequel of sorts, so some may find reading them in reverse order a better experience, the choice is yours!

The book follows a small science expedition, with a miltary escort, through a few narrators.
The characters perspectives are distinctly different, it is a joy to revel in just how different, and well written, they are.

The story itself unfolds with high impact stakes slowly building, and culminating in a fast paced battle for survival, as you would expect from any post apocalyptic zombie story, but perhaps not in the way you would think.

I absolutely raced through this book, it kept me gripped the whole time but it isn't full of action, and deals with the genre, in what I believe, is a fairly fresh way.
I would like to see more books in this setting, but perhaps centered around other parts of the world, and how they have dealt with the situation.

I would highly recommend the series, as they are well written and gratifying in that sense. I enjoyed the variance of characters, and the science was not overwhelming or detracting.

I look forward to reading some of M. R. Carey's books in other genres.
  
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Sarah (7800 KP) rated The Last Librarian in Books

Jul 24, 2020  
The Last Librarian
The Last Librarian
Brandt Legg | 2015 | Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Poorly written and unoriginal
I wanted so much to like this book. The synopsis makes it sound like a more modern take on Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, however no matter how many times this book tries to reference these classics, it will never live up to these.

The good thing about this book is that the idea behind it. Set in a futuristic society where a pandemic has wiped out a large part of the population, the thought behind it is fairly relevant and in keeping with today’s events and you can almost imagine that this could’ve easily happened today. That however is where the good stops. The story is far too overly complicated and predictable, and also pretty dull. It doesn’t help that the author has decided that despite being set less than 80 years from today, everything has changed - the language, the continents, technology to the point where everything has a ridiculous and laughable new name. I never understand why authors try and rename everything just because it’s classed as a futuristic book, it’s entirely unnecessary. And then there’s the acronyms. Within the first half of the book so many silly acronyms are introduced that I quickly lost the will to even try and remember what they stood for, it’s far too many.

The characters are whiny and self absorbed, with a large part of the chapters taken up by their monotonous and rambling inner monologuing. And then they all seem to inexplicably talk in literary quotes all the time, to constantly stress their self importance and the worthiness of the books. The relationships between characters also seem poorly developed yet progress far too quickly.

Overall I really didn’t enjoy this book, and the fact that it has been set up for 2 further sequels doesn’t interest me in the slightest. I’d have to be very desperate to read those.