Author: Peadar O. Guilin
Release Date: March 13th, 2012
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 336
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Interest: Series
Others in the Series: The Inferior
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 4 Stars
The humans are weak and vulnerable. Soon the beasts that share their stone-age world will kill and eat them. To save his tribe, Stopmouth must make his way to the Roof, the mysterious hi-tech world above the surface. But the Roof has its own problems. The nano technology that controls everything from the environment to the human body is collapsing. A virus has already destroyed the Upstairs, sending millions of refugees to seek shelter below. And now a rebellion against the Commission, organized by the fanatical Religious, is about to break. Hunted by the Commission's Elite Agents through the overcrowded, decaying city of the future, Stopmouth must succeed in a hunt of his own: to find the secret power hidden in the Roof's computerized brain, and return to his people before it is too late.
This is the second book that I have read that is the second in the series. I should really pay attention to what I request before I request it, but either way this book did in some ways make sense.
I'm not going to lie, I highly recommend reading the first book, which I wish I did. But after a while the reader can keep up with who is who and the main drama surrounding the novel, which I think worked well for Guilin. Even if someone doesn't read the first book, they at least won't be completely lost.
Stopmouth spends much of the novel looking for his love as he travels to a civilization that is supposed to be mainly utopian, but soon the discovery of the dystopia that is hidden beneath this novel. The novel did not differ from other traditional SF setting and the villains were pretty predictable as far as they are concerned. His own originality came with the basic plot-line, because I have not read a book with a character like Stopmouth before.
The ending felt a little rushed, but I think overall the novel did well to get it's point across. I think that Guilin could have done a little more to make some of the characters believable.
It didn't go too fast and it didn't go to slow, which I think helped Guilin a lot as well. I'm not sure what to say about this book that would not give too much away, because this book was good, but I felt like it could be better. Maybe it was just that I needed to read the first book for this to click for me a lot sooner or maybe it was just that there was something in his writing that turned me off, but I just felt a little meh about it.
It was good enough to receive a four in my book, but I feel like it needed a little something to add that spice to it. But I think it would be worth the read, for those that are looking for something.
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